William Grant Still (1895-1978)
Songs and Piano Music
Yajie Zhang (mezzo-soprano) [11-14]
Gabriel Rollinson (baritone) [1-10, 15-17, 21-27]
Hartmut Höll (piano)
rec. 2023, Hans-Rosbaud Studio, Baden-Baden, Germany
Texts included
cpo 555 627-2 [67]
The orchestral music of William Grant Still is well represented on disc. He also wrote choruses, half a dozen cantatas, numerous songs, nine operas, piano music and chamber music. This disc offers a variety of vocal works, mostly art songs; the pre-eminent accompanist Hartmut Höll goes solo, too.
Still had been a member of the Harlem Renaissance in the 1920s. Many of his songs are to texts by poets he knew then. The 1949 cycle Songs of Separation is a deeply moving setting of six poems, five of them by African-American poets. Idolatry, to words by Arna Bontemps, is a very angular setting, a little more modern than some listeners might expect from Still. There follows Poeme by the Haitian poet Phillipe Thoby-Marcelin; Still’s beautiful setting is a little reminiscent of Poulenc. After the more humorous Parted, we have If you should go, to a text by Countee Cullen. This is the other highlight of the cycle, although A black Pierrot to the words by Langston Hughes is quite subtle.
Still wrote many of his vocal and choral works to texts by his second wife Verna Arvey, poet, journalist and pianist Her words for the 1959 cycle From the Hearts of Women depict stages of a woman’s life. Little Mother may remind listeners of Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Midtide is an almost heart-wrenching lament for the loss of youth. Coquette belies its title: it is an evocation of the “four ages of man”. There follows the affecting Bereft. Two of Still’s best-known individual songs are here too, Citadel and Grief (1953), the first broadly optimist and the second dramatically evocative.
Still was religious and patriotic. Gabriel Rollinson ably sings two of his excellent settings of spirituals. The composer also wrote hymns, including the excellent All that I am, to words by his wife. Not precisely religious, but similarly uplifting, is Still’s personal creed, Song for the Valiant. When it came to patriotic works, Still was national and regional. His songs in honour of the states of Arkansas and Mississippi are very enjoyable, buoyant marches. More serious, but equally stirring, is Rising Tide – it played repeatedly in the Perisphere at the 1939 New York World’s Fair – and the wonderful My Brother American.
The program concludes with Plainchant for America, originally written for baritone and orchestra. It was first performed in 1941 when it received the approval of no less an authority than Virgil Thomson. I would love to hear this noble work in full orchestral dress.
Mezzo-soprano Yajie Zhang sings only From the Hearts of Woman here, but she is completely convincing, and she handles her voice with great sensitivity. The rest of the songs are left to baritone Gabriel Rollinson. He has to demonstrate a great variety of styles, and he meets the challenge. I especially liked his straightforward approach to the spirituals Here’s one and Sinner, please don’t let this harvest pass, and to the very different Plainchant for America. He brings great depth to the better-known Song for the Lonely and Weeping Angel (Grief).
Hartmut Höll’s accompaniment is up to his usual very high standard. We must also mention his playing of the solo Prelude, very moving. The disc will shed new light on parts of Still’s output and on his musical personality.
William Kreindler
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Contents
1) Rising Tide [1:43]
Songs of Separation
2) Idolatry [2:31]
3) Poème [1:33]
4) Parted [0:47]
5) If you should go [1:17]
6) A black Pierrot [2:36]
7) Arkansas [1:31]
8) All that I am [2:02]
9) Here’s one [3:14]
10) Sinner, please don’t let this harvest pass [2:13]
From the Hearts of Woman
11) Little Mother [3:34]
12) Midtide [2:57]
13) Coquette [1:37]
14) Bereft [2:03]
15) Mississippi [2:05]
16) Citadel [2:35]
17) Weeping Angel (Grief) [2:34]
A Piano Collection
18) Prelude [4:22]
19) Dance of the Porteuses [1:45]
20) Swanee River [1:50]
21) My brother American [0:52]
22) Up there [0:54]
23) Bayou Home [3:19]
24) Song for the valiant [2:06]
25) Song for the Lonely [3:35]
26) The breath of a rose [3:22]
27) Plain-Chant for America [7:47]
