Customer Reviews

Samuel Barber: The Lovers; Prayers of Kierkegaard

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Samuel Barber had a reputation as a literary composer, and his taste in written material, the angsty journals of Soren Kierkegaard and the lushly sensual poems of Pablo Neruda, reflect well on his taste.

I'm a big Barber fan. His biography, which includes being an army brat, a drinker, and a homosexual, is intriguing, and his insistence on sad sweet lyricism and hummable melody through a 20th century of percussive dissonance and willful abstraction is brave.

I had high hopes for the Neruda settings. These poems fairly cackle with eroticism and sensuality, encompassing both love and loss. Barber's musical romanticism should have been the perfect match, but his take on "The Lovers" never quite comes to life. His melodies seem static here and fail to captivate--so unlike his achingly lovely Essays for Orchestra and famously elegaic Adagio for Strings.

The "Prayers of Kierkegaard," on the other hand, achieve sublimity. Barber's musical settings for these open the disc and show us many faces: quasi-Gregorian chant, mellifluous mezzo soloes, Stravinskian thunder, seamless choral work in the service of inspired melodies. It's intriguing that Barber seems more able to craft fine music for works about religious rather than erotic ecstasy.

This Grammy-winning disc is a pristine digital recording. Its clarity is beyond reproach, and its performances from the orchestra and the chorus are fine ones. Another reviewer prefers the Telarc recording of "Prayers," and I will be investigating this on the chance that he's correct. I hope so!
I'd gladly own two or more versions of this underrated work.

As the CD proclaims, this is the first recording of Barber's "The Lovers," a 1971 setting of poems from Pablo Neruda's "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair." (Incidentally, Neruda won the Nobel Prize in Literature that year.)

The lyrics, while neither "raunchy" nor obscene, are forthright: the baritones enter one of the work's nine movements singing "Strip off your clothes, strip off your clothes."

The forces acquit themselves admirably, as the piece slowly works its way from the lust of the opening movement to the despair of the final movement ("Cemetery of kisses"), with its final hushed lament, "Forsaken!" Duesing in particular makes a fine soloist in this work.

A bit less successful is the performance of "Prayers of Kierkegaard", which makes an interesting comparison, in that it is a setting of four prayers of divine love. The performance is good, but a comparison to Robert Shaw's Grammy-winning recording for Telarc does not help this CD. On the plus side, the "orchestral dance" before the final prayer comes off a little more clearly, and a little more heavily, on this CD. On the downside, Sarah Reese sings with far too much vibrato (as do, to a lesser extent, the sopranos in the chorus), robbing the soprano solo of much of the purity and beauty that Carmen Pelton gives the Telarc recording.

I would definitely recommend this to fans of Barber for "The Lovers" alone; if you're looking for "Prayers of Kierkegaard," however, go with Shaw on Telarc. [Also, at 52 minutes, the CD is a bit too short, at full-price, to recommend to someone just getting started with Barber. It is a pity, given the extra space available, that they couldn't have included a third work, such as Barber's "Medea's Dance of Vengeance"--which would have provided a third view on love (in this case, love denied/betrayed).]

Tragically underrated and unsung, these vocal-orchestral masterpieces by 20th century American composer Samuel Barber come in for a powerhouse performance on this disc. The chorus in "Prayers of Kierkegaard" has a better sound than that in the Robert Shaw/Atlanta SO recording of the same. The soprano soloist is the weakest link on this record. I had not heard "The Lovers" before buying this disc, but I was surprised by its vibrancy. Such exciting music should not remain buried in obscurity, even if it seemed unfashionably conservative in its own time.

With the centenary of the birth of Samuel Barber this year, hopefully some attention will be paid to programming and recording The Prayers of Kierkegaard and The Lovers. Any new recording will have some still competition from this recording. Indeed, this is the world premiere recording of The Lovers.

The Prayers of Kierkegaard was composed on a commission from Serge Koussevitzky in 1953. Samuel Barber selected various portions of prayers and sermons for this work, which is cast in five sections but played as a single movement. The Prayers opens with a section of chant, which Barber always found captivating. The orchestra and chorus explode the peace of the chant with the opening lines of the prayer. The music continues with alternating sections for soprano and tenor solos and chorus. The music builds reaching an ecstatic intensity and settles back to a contemplative, chant-like section for chorus. The work concludes with a glorious chorale.

The Lovers was a commission by the Girard Bank of Philadelphia and was written in 1971. Samuel Barber selected love poems by Nobel laureate Pablo Neruda from Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair. The words are frank and earthy which may have caused some murmurs from the movers and shakers of conservative Philadelphia. However, when Barber introduced The Lovers to his clients there were no objections. The Lovers is in nine sections, scored for a large orchestra, baritone and chorus. The poems trace a love affair from passionate love to estrangement and parting. The first poem - Body of a Woman - is lust with a sensual orchestration. The poems trace the development of the love affair in the early poems with verses in admiration of the lover by the man. In The Fortunate Isles, the lovers are adrift in a boat to a dreamy orchestration. Beginning with the brief Sometimes, the poems take up the estrangement of the lovers. The baritone sings a lament on the end of his love in Tonight I can write, and an epitaph is offered by the chorus in Cemetery of Kisses.

The Lovers has been unjustly neglected. The first recording was not made until twenty years after the work was written. Although there was an a proposal to record the Prayers of Kierkegaard and The Lovers by the Philadelphia Orchestra the project never went beyond discussions. So, the late Andrew Schenck, conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in subscriptions concerts, had the honor of doing what the Philadelphia could not. This is a well-balanced, beautifully performed recording that is a must have for anyone who has an interest in the music of Samuel Barber.

Barber's The Lovers is set to erotic poetry by Pablo Neruda but the resulting music is bucolic rather than sexual, with a strong pictoral element. Listeners familiar with Knoxville Summer of 1915 will know what to expect. The Lovers is a nine-movement, half-hour piece for chorus, baritone and orchestra. Its lyrical attributes are considerable indeed. Prayers of Kierkegaard is based on poems about divine love. It is also a very moving piece. I especially like the ardent singing of Sarah Reese but all the performers on this disc distinguish themselves and are well recorded, even if the choral forces are not ideally balanced. Five stars to all involved for uncovering a relatively obscure but highly rewarding corner of the repertoire.

Schneck does a great job for these pieces surrendering control of orchestral swells while still leaving the vocal/choral lines at the forefront. This piece came from a live recording at Chicago Sympony Center (http://bit.ly/pQgGwJ). The room has a great balance of acoustic characteristics, e.g. reverberation/liveness, for this sort of chamber work.

Lovers, in particular, glistens with its interplay between the carnal, emotional poetry of Pablo Neruda and neo-romantic orchestration. Terrific work is done by baritione Dale Duesing, especially in the first and sixth movements. In general, the almost-vulgar text is reminiscent of (some movements of) Carmina Burana, composed by Barber's contemporary Orff.

Prayers of Kierkegaard is a setting of another great set of texts, this time by an early existentialist Soren Kierkegaard. While the Scandanavian philosophers works have a Christian basis, the texts used in this piece speak more to the universal strivings of humankind. The angst of not knowing god and the frustration of god's seeming absence are captured through the use of atonal accompaniment. One such moment occurs in an early movement, where the choir/orchestra crescendos to the chill-inducing "But *nothing* changes thee; thou Unchanging."

Overall, Prayers of Kierkegaard has a more experimental feel than the highly polished (and also more tonally conservative) Lovers, and as such, the recording has a bit of an inconsistent vibe. That said, highly recommended.

I must agree with many other posters that the best of this CD is the "Prayers of Kierkegaard", which is a bit different from much of Barber's output in that he seems to use elements that are much more "modernistic" than what is typical of his output. The music is seasoned with a modernism (atonalism) that seems to blend and doesn't come off as gimmicky.

Indeed, "Prayers of Kierkegaard" contains all of Barber's "lyrical" and "neo-Romamtic" goodness that one can also gather from his other works that showcase the human voice.

While "The Lovers" is an interesting work, as others have stated, Barber's style doesn't quite match Pablo Neruda's sexually charged texts. Barber's style is a bit too "sad but lovely" to meet the needs of red-hot passion. Perhaps a composition more along the lines of Wagner's over-the-top dramatics, or even something closer to Stravinsky's, primitive "Rite of Spring" would suite Neruda far better, but Barber is just too sweet and flowing to meet the needs of such sexual tension.

All-in-all I would say that this CD is a good disc for Barber lovers. I wouldn't recommend it as a "first" Barber CD, but once a person has, at least, added Barber's outstanding Violin Concerto and the very lovely "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" to his or her repitiore; and after deciding that such music is indeed to one's liking, then I would consider this CD.

Liner notes are included and are very thorough.

Most music lovers come to Barber through the Adagio for Strings or perhaps the Violin Concerto, but the journey shouldn't end there. Barber's output is consistently good and diverse, so there's plenty to enjoy.

Enter "Prayers of Kierkegaard," op. 30 and "The Lovers," op. 43, both for orchestra and chorus with vocal soloists. The massive forces required make these lyric masterpieces a rare find in the concert hall or the recording catalog, and makes this excellent disc from the Chicago Symphony and Andrew Schenck so worthwhile. It's also important to note that this recording comes from live performances in October 1991, and Schenck died of cancer in February 1992 at 51, so this is a critical final statement from a fine conductor whose career was cut far too short.

As always, the Chicago Symphony is supercharged and uncannily accurate. The Chicago Symphony Chorus shines in this repertoire with a very American choral sound, clear diction, and a true feel for the music. Baritone Dale Duesing does the vocal "heavy lifting" in The Lovers, with a rich sound and subtle sentimentality utterly sympathetic to Neruda's lyrics, which are delightfully risque. Soprano Sarah Reese can sound a bit bright at times, but delivers an excellent Prayers of Kierkegaard with some truly sublime moments.

Without a doubt, The Lovers steals the show here. Based on "Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair" by Pablo Neruda, the lyrics are sexy and heated in the early movements, haunting and resigned in the later. In the uptight world of the concert hall, such sincerity is both rare and refreshing.

If anything falls short, it's the somewhat dull and uneven recording efforts of Koch International Classics. Those used to the close mic-ing and utter clarity of the Chicago Symphony in their London/Decca and Deutsche Grammophon recordings will find Koch's sound a bit "underwhelming."

Nonetheless, this is a wonderful recording and absolutely wortwhile. In a Classical catalog filled with countless recordings of the same repertoire, it's rare that we're given something this original and interesting. Don't miss it.

If you like music to calm your tormented spirit this one is for you. The amplitude or the recording runs from barely audible to overwhelming. You will be adjusting your volume control several times in order to fully appreciate this CD. 'The Lovers' is easier to listen to requiring less adjustment. Prayers of Kierkegaard Op. 30 was my motive for purchasing but it is over much too quickly @ 19 minutes 20 seconds. Overall my only negative thought is that the time of the pieces disappoints. The total length of both pieces is only 51 minutes 51 seconds which seems to pass too quickly for my liking. The performance is clean and typical of Barber with dramatic chorale combining with great orchestration. I would classify this CD as Operatic. Hope this helps.