Robert Paterson's The Four Seasons consists of four song cycles, with a total of twenty-one songs, for four different voice types: soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and bass-baritone. Each voice type represents a different season: Summer Songs (soprano), Autumn Songs (mezzo-soprano), Winter Songs (bass-baritone), and Spring Songs (tenor). The four critically-acclaimed singers on this album, soprano, Marnie Breckenridge, mezzo-soprano, Blythe Gaissert, tenor Alok Kumar, and bass-baritone David Neal have worked closely with Paterson, and gave the world premieres of these works with American Modern Ensemble, one of America's most beloved new music ensembles. The songs on this album are all settings of poems by various poets (listed below in the track listings), and each cycle is for voice and chamber ensemble consisting of flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin and cello. This ensemble is commonly called a Pierrot ensemble, named after the ensemble that Arnold Schoenberg used for his work Pierrot Lunaire. To date, Paterson has composed more works for this type of ensemble than anyone in the world. The Four Seasons was produced by Grammyr winning producer and engineer Adam Abeshouse, and recorded at The DiMenna Center for Classical Music's Mary Flagler Cary Hall (Summer Songs and Autumn Songs), the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Winter Songs), and in the Ladd Concert Hall Skidmore College's Arthur Zankel Music Center (Spring Songs).

Tracklist:

Summer Songs (Version For Soprano & Chamber Ensemble): No. 1, Summer Music
Summer Songs (Version For Soprano & Chamber Ensemble): No. 2, The Kite
Summer Songs (Version For Soprano & Chamber Ensemble): No. 3, Childhood
Summer Songs (Version For Soprano & Chamber Ensemble): No. 4, Moths
Summer Songs (Version For Soprano & Chamber Ensemble): No. 5, Summer Night, Riverside
Autumn Songs (Version For Mezzo-Soprano & Chamber Ensemble): No. 1, Ascension, Autumn Dusk In Central Park
Autumn Songs (Version For Mezzo-Soprano & Chamber Ensemble): No. 2, Under The Harvest Moon
Autumn Songs (Version For Mezzo-Soprano & Chamber Ensemble): No. 3, All Hallows' Eve
Autumn Songs (Version For Mezzo-Soprano & Chamber Ensemble): No. 4, November For Beginners
Autumn Songs (Version For Mezzo-Soprano & Chamber Ensemble): No. 5, Leaves Before The Wind
Winter Songs (Version For Bass-Baritone & Chamber Ensemble): No. 1, Icicles Filled The Long Window
Winter Songs (Version For Bass-Baritone & Chamber Ensemble): No. 2, Dark Day, Warm And Windy
Winter Songs (Version For Bass-Baritone & Chamber Ensemble): No. 3, The Snow Man
Winter Songs (Version For Bass-Baritone & Chamber Ensemble): No. 4, Boy At The Window
Winter Songs (Version For Bass-Baritone & Chamber Ensemble): No. 5, Old Story
Winter Songs (Version For Bass-Baritone & Chamber Ensemble): No. 6, Neither Snow
Spring Songs (Version For Tenor & Chamber Ensemble): No. 1, English Sparrows [Washington Square]
Spring Songs (Version For Tenor & Chamber Ensemble): No. 2, April 5, 1974
Spring Songs (Version For Tenor & Chamber Ensemble): No. 3, Done With
Spring Songs (Version For Tenor & Chamber Ensemble): No. 4, The Widow's Lament In Springtime
Spring Songs (Version For Tenor & Chamber Ensemble): No. 5, Spring Rain

UPC: 616895091728
Label: American Modern Recs
Release Date: 4.24.20
Format: CD

Paterson / American Modern Ensemble - Four Seasons (2pk) (2 CD)