Bearing musical witness to the versatile talents of two acclaimed northern California-based composers, The Life Before Us combines works from John G. Bilotta and Allan Crossman. Bilotta's cycle of Yeats Songs, performed by baritone Andrew R. White, highlights five of the poet's shorter lyrics in predominantly bi-tonal or atonal settings. His collection of Renaissance Songs is based on the work of several Elizabethan poets, including John Donne and Thomas Lodge. They're brilliantly delivered by tenor Justin Marsh. Bilotta draws on two American poets, Carl Sandburg and Edna St. Vincent Millay, for "Lost" and "Prayer to Persephone," two songs united by a single poetic theme and elegantly performed by soprano Cass Panuska accompanied by pianist Hadley McCarroll, who are also featured on The Hippocampus' Monologue, the closing aria from the first act of Bilotta's opera Rosetta's Stone. Allan Crossman's ten songs on The Life Before Us include four inspired by the Spanish poet Federico GarcÃa Lorca and an international array of others: from Ireland (James Joyce), Germany (Hermann Claudius and Ricarda Huch), Russia (Alexander Scriabin), and America (Louis Phillips), performed by mezzo-soprano Megan Stetson and bass Richard Mix, with the composer himself at the piano. Crossman's three-movement Sonata fLux, with pianist Keisuke Nakagoshi, flows from the energetic "Moto Atlantico" through the vibrating "fLight of the Firefly" to the swirling fluidity of "Rondo a Pollock" - inspired, as it's title suggests, by Jackson Pollock's 'action painting' technique - and brings the eclectic program to an impressive conclusion.

Tracklist:

Yeats Songs: I. The Lover Pleads With His Friend For Old Friends
Yeats Songs: II. The Moods
Yeats Songs: III. A Drinking Song
Yeats Songs: IV. The Old Men Admiring Themselves In The Water
Yeats Songs: V. Maid Quiet
Renaissance Songs: I. Prisoners
Renaissance Songs: II. The Silver Swan
Renaissance Songs: III. Aubade
Renaissance Songs: IV. Bitter-Sweet
Renaissance Songs: V. A Fancy
10 Songs: No. 1, New Songs
10 Songs: No. 2, New Songs 2
10 Songs: No. 3, Dream
10 Songs: No. 4, Water
10 Songs: No. 5, Landscape
10 Songs: No. 6, Deep In The Heavens
10 Songs: No. 7, That Windless Hour
10 Songs: No. 8, Poem Of Ecstasy
10 Songs: No. 9, The Leaves Murmur In The Wind
10 Songs: No. 10, My Entire Life Before Me
Piano Sonatina: I. Grazioso E Leggero
Piano Sonatina: II. Adagietto
Piano Sonatina: III. Con Brio
Piano Sonatina No. 2: I. Languido
Piano Sonatina No. 2: II. Delicato
Piano Sonatina No. 2: III. Volando
Piano Sonatina No. 3: I. Giocoso
Piano Sonatina No. 3: II. Andantino
Piano Sonatina No. 3: III. Furioso
Rosetta's Stone: The Hippocampus' Monologue
2 Songs On American Poetry: No. 1, Lost
2 Songs On American Poetry: No. 2, Prayer To Persephone
Sonata Flux: I. Moto Atlantico
Sonata Flux: II. Flight Of The Firefly
Sonata Flux: III. Rondo À Pollock

UPC: 896931004534
Label: Navona
Release Date: 4.13.18
Format: CD

Crossman / White / Nakagoshi - Life Before Us (CD)