VA: NYFOS Records: The Singles, Vol. 1
NYFOS Records

A better argument for the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS), the organization founded in 1988 and overseen by pianist and NYFOS Artistic Director Steven Blier, couldn't possibly be made than this inaugural volume of singles. Culled from the company's archives, the fifty-one-minute set features a panorama of singers, many of them familiar names from the opera and theatre stages, delivering a wildly eclectic fourteen-song collection. Ranging across two decades, the material includes live performances, in-studio recordings, and even some captured in Blier's NYC living room. Almost all are undoctored live takes, the exceptions two songs that, reflective of then-in-place COVID protocols, involved mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey adding her parts from her England residence after the pianist recorded his parts at home. Guitarists Oren Fade and Greg Utzig, percussionist James Saporito, and second pianist Joseph Li contribute to a few tracks, but for the most part the songs couple the vocalists with Blier's piano. The results are, in a word, terrific.

As tempting as it is to attribute the appeal of the release to the singers, let's not forget it's Blier who's the prime mover. Since the organization's inception, he's been involved in the presentation of more than 150 vocal recitals, and the NYFOS has not only explored the American songbook in all its forms but also material from Spain, Latin America, Scandinavia, Russia, and Europe. A faculty member of The Juilliard School whose former students include Julia Bullock, Sasha Cooke, and Kate Lindsey, Blier's a terrific pianist and accompanist who always brings out the best in the singer.

All that said, the vocal performances are clearly the primary drawing-card. As much as the rousing eighteenth-century Spanish song “El dulce de América” oozes charm, it's the dynamic performance by Jennifer Aylmer, for example, that thrills the most. Highlights are plentiful, from the epic reading by Lucia Bradford of Duke Ellington's “Come Sunday” to the premiere recording by Lindsey of the sublime “Abendlied,” the latter composed by a largely forgotten Holocaust survivor, Georg Jokl. In liner notes, Blier writes that he remains “astounded at the way she followed every twist and turn of my phrasing,” and the statement's borne out by the uncanny precision with which she aligns her voice to the piano in this rescued-from-obscurity gem (she does much the same in her other piece, a luminous rendering of Frederick Hollander's “Black Market”).

In masterful displays of vocal control and artistry, Bernarda Fink and Lorraine Hunt Lieberson deliver moving renditions of Fauré's “En Sourdine” and Paladilhe's “Psyché,” respectively; livelier by comparison, Chabrier's “Lied”is distinguished by a playful treatment from Kurt Ollmann. Particularly memorable is the show-stopping performance Michael Spyres gives of Rossini's “Addio ai Viennesi,” his agile runs fully justifying the applause he receives in this live recording.

April 2024