Thomas Hampson - Songs from Chicago (2018) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Thomas Hampson, America’s leading baritone and a champion of the art of classic song — poetry set to music — makes his Cedille Records debut with a program of songs by five composers of the early 20th century associated with the city of Chicago: Ernst Bacon, Florence Price, John Alden Carpenter, Margaret Bonds, and Louis Campbell-Tipton. All of them, Hampson says, “have distinguished themselves in history as great voices of the artistic American narrative.”

Hailed as “an outstanding recitalist” by Grove Music Online, the much-honored international opera star, recording artist, and “ambassador of song” performs compositions based on poems by Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes, and Rabindranath Tagore, the Bengali poet who became the first non-European to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature. Hampson, whose discography includes more than 170 albums, including Grammy and Grand Prix de Disque award winners, is accompanied on Songs from Chicago by collaborative pianist extraordinaire Kuang-Hao Huang, accompanist of choice for Chicago’s top singers and instrumentalists.

The New York Philharmonic’s first Artist-in-Residence, Hampson also has been honored with a Concertgebouw Prize, Library of Congress Living Legends Award, and the Hugo-Wolf-Medal for outstanding achievements in the art of song interpretation, among many other awards.

Notes by Thomas Hampson: I have long been a fan of Cedille Records and its mandate to record the works of Chicago-based composers and performers. It was a casual conversation with the label’s President and producer, James Ginsburg, about when he might make a recording of Chicago-based song composers that led to the birth of this album. Knowing that Ernst Bacon and John Alden Carpenter were local originals, I immediately took up the challenge to explore what other colleagues might be Chicago-based and was surprised at the list of prominent, yet still relatively unknown American composers of song who emanated from or settled in Chicago. …

Tracklist:
1. Songs at Parting : No. 1. Lingering Last Drops 01:37
2. 6 Songs : No. 2. World Take Good Notice 00:57
3. Songs at Parting : No. 3. The Last Invocation 02:05
4. Songs at Parting : No. 4. On the Frontiers 03:45
5. Songs at Parting : No. 5. The Divine Ship 02:03
6. Songs at Parting : No. 6. Darest Thou Now, O Soul 04:01
7. Songs at Parting : No. 7. Grand Is the Seen 02:35
8. Songs to the Dark Virgin : Songs to the Dark Virgin 01:57
9. My Dream 02:06
10. 4 Negro Songs : No. 1. Shake your brown feet, honey 02:05
11. 4 Negro Songs : No. 3. The Cryin' Blues 02:22
12. 4 Negro Songs : No. 2. Jazz-Boyz 01:15
13. 3 Dream Portraits : No. 1. Minstrel Man 01:41
14. 3 Dream Portraits : No. 2. Dream Variation 01:44
15. 3 Dream Portraits : No. 3. I, Too 01:42
16. The Negro Speaks of Rivers : The Negro Speaks of Rivers 03:56
17. 2 Songs, Op. 33 : No. 1. Elegy 02:47
18. Gitanjali : Credo 01:01
19. Gitanjali : When I bring to You Colour'd Toys 02:23
20. Gitanjali : On the Day When Death Will Knock at Thy Door 03:03
21. Gitanjali : The Sleep that Flits on Baby's Eyes 02:27
22. Gitanjali : I am Like a Remnant of a Cloud of Autumn 04:27
23. Gitanjali : On the Seashore of Endless Worlds Children Meet 05:30
24. Gitanjali : Light, My Light 02:21
25. Gitanjali : Epilogue 00:23

Personnel:
Thomas Hampson, baritone
Kuang-Hao Huang, piano