Danielle
Woerner | Voices of the Valley
Albany Records | www.daniellewoerner.com
Roll's Quick Pick 3
What started as a one time gig for SUNY Ulster artist-in-residence
Danielle Woerner (soprano) performing works by Hudson Valley
composers, became an encore gig, then the positive response
required a proper documentation of the event. The late Alan
Shulman’s too-brief Milton ode (“Song of the Moon
Festival in the Woods”) has a sweetly nocturnal flavor,
leading to darkly whimsical renderings of Emily Dickinson poems
by Robert Baksa. Pianist James Fitzwilliam brings a melodic
neo-Classicism, with accompaniment by cellist Susan Seligman
with his song cycle “Eternity,” which also incorporates
the words of Dickinson. Peter Schickele, AKA PDQ Bach, supplies “Three
Songs for a Wedding,” which approach lyrics by William
Cavendish and Dante Gabriel Rossetti with a more Kurt Weill-inspired
style. Robert Starer takes Gail Godwin’s text “Anna
Margarita’s Will”, and sets it with flute, horn,
cello, and piano, bringing a more contemporary tonality to
the collection, while Aurora Northland’s song cycle (words
by Pearl Bond) “The Unicorn Love Poems” return
to tonality, with simpatico accompaniment from pianist Barbara
Pickhardt. Throughout the CD, Woerner give each song special
resonance, and no composer can ask for more.
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