GRAMMY Award winning American soprano Susan Narucki, "one of the great practitioners of contemporary vocal music" (Opera News) presents This Island, a specially curated, unique set of 21 art songs written in the first half of the 20th century, chiefly by women and some receiving their world premiere recordings. The catalyst for This Island was a line from a collection of letters by Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke: "... If you could only be here with me so I could share with you the happiness of these great poems, they would let you realize what we all now need more urgently: that transience is not separation... " The poems Rilke cites are by Belgian Symbolist Emile Verhaeren, whose poetry - Susan discovered - has been set to music by composers both familiar and virtually unknown, including Nadia Boulanger and her Paris Conservatoire teacher Raoul Pugno, Belgian IrÃ¨ne Fuerison, Dutch Henriette Bosmans and the mysterious Parisian composer Elizabeth Claisse. Susan rounds out the album with songs by American composer and educator Marion Bauer, who studied in Paris and met Boulanger and Pugno, and Dutch composer Henriette Bosmans whose music Susan was familiar with, bringing the project full circle.

Tracklist:

Dit eiland
In den regen
Teeken den hemel in het zand der zee
Heures claires, Les Heures d'aprÃ¨s-midi, Les Heures du soir Op.50~I. Les Heures claires I: O la splendeur de notre joie
Heures claires, Les Heures d'aprÃ¨s-midi, Les Heures du soir Op.50~II. Les Heures claires XX: Dis-moi, ma simple et ma tranquill
Heures claires, Les Heures d'aprÃ¨s-midi, Les Heures du soir Op.50~III. Les Heures d'aprÃ¨s-midi XXVII: Ardeur des sens
Heures claires, Les Heures d'aprÃ¨s-midi, Les Heures du soir Op.50~IV. Les Heures d'aprÃ¨s-midi XXIX: Vous m'avez dit
Heures claires, Les Heures d'aprÃ¨s-midi, Les Heures du soir Op.50~V. Les Heures du soir XXI: Avec mes vieilles mains
Heures claires, Les Heures d'aprÃ¨s-midi, Les Heures du soir Op.50~VI. Les Heures du soir XXVI: Lorsque tu fermeras mes yeux
Heures claires~III. Vous m'avez dit.
Four Poems Op. 16~I. Through the upland meadows
Four Poems Op. 16~II. I love the night
Four Poems Op. 16~III. Midsummer Dreams
Four Poems Op. 16~IV. In the bosom of the desert

UPC: 822252259223
Label: Avie
Release Date: 2.10.23
Format: CD

Bauer / Bosman / Narucki - This Island (CD)