Customer Reviews

Sings the Poetry of Walt Whitman

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As a concept album, Hampson's 1997 tribute to Walt Whitman earned critical praise for its sensitivity and musicality. There's no doubt that the singer is in rare form here--it would be hard to imagine any of this repertoire sung with more passion and conviction. He isn't a good reciter of poetry in the four spoken tracks. The major drawback, however, is that few of these songs are close to being masterpieces -- Bernstein's late "To what you said" stands out -- and quite a number are decidedly cautious.

The avid listener can cncentrate on the poetry instead of the music, I suppose--Hampson's enunciation is crystal clear--but after six or seven items couched in the same rather timid Anglo-American art song idiom, this labor of love becomes rather taxing as a listening experience. Taken a few at a time, however, these are intriguing choices that combine into a unqiue recital.

Am looking for the bugle calls commonly used when raising the flag and lowering it. Specifically, I am looking for "To the Colors" and "Retreat" in bugle calls. Do you have it?

kwyoung@pol.net