Search - Gregg Kallor, Adriana Zabala :: Exhilaration - Dickinson and Yeats Songs

	Gregg Kallor, Adriana Zabala Exhilaration - Dickinson and Yeats Songs Genre: Classical This album is the premiere recording of Gregg Kallor's richly imaginative settings of poems by Emily Dickinson and William Butler Yeats, featuring mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala and Kallor at the piano. Kallor and Zabala pre... more » « less
? Larger Image

CD Details

All Artists: Gregg Kallor, Adriana Zabala
Title: Exhilaration - Dickinson and Yeats Songs
Members Wishing: 0
Total Copies: 0
Label: GKM Records
Original Release Date: 1/1/2008
Genre: Classical
Styles: Historical Periods, Classical (c.1770-1830), Modern, 20th, & 21st Century
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 895125002011

Synopsis

Product Description

This album is the premiere recording of Gregg Kallor's richly imaginative settings of poems by Emily Dickinson and William Butler Yeats, featuring mezzo-soprano Adriana Zabala and Kallor at the piano. Kallor and Zabala premiered these song-cycles at Carnegie Hall's recital hall in 2007. Also included on the album are "Song" (a setting of Christina Rossetti's poem) and Kallor's original "Lullaby."

"[These songs] are simply beautiful and poignant works... Well crafted? Definitely. Entertaining? Yes. Well performed? Absolutely. Lyrical? You bet."

-Sequenza21

"Kallor knows how to make these words sing, and Zabala gives perfect flight to them."

-Opera News

"Kallor's compositions are as touching, lilting, and vulnerable as the poems he sets."

-American Record Guide

CD Reviews

A must for fans of great singing and great poetry

Acquisitrix | New York, NY USA | 09/30/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"MOVING & BEAUTIFUL.

Adriana Zabala sounds magnificent in this album of fresh, beautiful new songs.

The Yeats set takes some well-known and some more obscure lyric poems of the great Irish master and sets them to music that is remarkably colorful, romantic and even, at times, jazz-influenced. (And funny! Make sure you check out "The Drunken Man's Praise of Sobriety.")

And still, the Dickinson cycle that gives the CD its name is the real gem here. It combines some of Emily Dickinson's most profound (and rather abstract) poems and sets them to beautiful, tonal (thank you!) music that is searching and heartfelt. I loved every one of these songs singly, but especially appreciated how well the texts were chosen to flow from one to the other and create meaning across the whole song-cycle. The first and last songs both begin with the word "Exhilaration" , but that word is imbued with the kind of unusual emotional shading that is pure Dickinson. And Kallor is uncannily able to follow Dickinson's every nuance; when you get to the end you really feel that you've arrived somewhere.

Kallor is someone to watch. Zabala, recital fans know, is a gorgeous singing actress -- a real treasure on the NY recital scene, who also turns up in interesting opera roles around the country. She got national attention for Philip Glass's 'Waiting for the Barbarians' when it was premiered in Texas. Sadly, I haven't heard of any NY premiere forthcoming. But I am very happy to have this album in the meantime."

Bravo...What a joy!

D. Bonifacio | Patterson, NY USA | 11/24/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Gregg Kallor's music is a sheer delight and an inspiration, and Adriana Zabala's voice is magnificent. Looking forward to future "exhilarating" performances!"