Show Me the Way
Songs by Beach, Price, Bonds, Sarah Kirkland Snider et al
Will Liverman (baritone), Jonathan King (piano)
Cedille CDR226 87:38 mins (2 discs)
This double album surveys American song by women. Bookended by jazz (an Ella Fitzgerald tune) and gospel (‘If I can help somebody’), it includes songs by Florence Price and Margaret Bonds alongside more recent compositions, including two premiere recordings. The closing song is sung by baritone Will Liverman’s mother and accompanied by him, in a wonderfully personal touch.
Not all the repertoire is equally convincing. Barnes’s Sable Jubilee includes many attractive moments in its celebration of Black pride; ‘Luxury’ and ‘Elevation’ open well but then sprawl. Rene Orth’s ‘A Prayer’ – a duet with mezzosoprano J’nai Bridges – similarly includes impressive and moving moments. Sarah Kirkland Snider’s ‘Everything That Ever Was’ (with Renée Fleming) is deeply intimate but feels unfocused.
Price’s songs are more economical. The Songs to a Dark Virgin, increasingly standard repertoire, is tremendous in Liverman’s rich tones. Another standout is Bond’s four settings of Edna St Vincent Millay. Beach’s late-romantic duet ‘Ah, Love is a Jasmine Vine’ from her rarely heard chamber opera Cabildo, is a treat, with soprano Nicole Cabell.
Sharply contrasted are Libby Larsen’s faux-naïve, almost documentary songs of boyhood, Machine Head. These respond well to Liverman’s pin-sharp, expressive diction. The closing eponymous ‘Machine Head’ works excellently, most especially its breathtaking final note.
One quibble about this otherwise impressive recording is that Liverman’s glorious voice is occasionally too richly operatic for the song (for instance, Bonds’s ‘What Lips My Lips Have Kissed’). Another is that most of the contemporary numbers lean towards expansive, loose structures; a different selection might have worked better. But Liverman’s voice is dazzling and King handles the often-dense accompaniments with architectural awareness, in a well-balanced recording.
PERFORMANCE ★★★★
RECORDING ★★★★