December Songs

Last updated

December Songs
by Maury Yeston
Year1991
Related Winterreise
by Franz Schubert
Premiere
DateMay 5, 1991
Location Weill Recital Hall
Performers Andrea Marcovicci and pianist (uncredited)

December Songs [a] is a song cycle for singer and pianist by musical theatre composer-lyricist Maury Yeston. The work is a "retelling" of Franz Schubert's Winterreise , (a song cycle of art songs), with a cabaret sensibility. The songs in both December Songs and Winterreise are linked as a sequence of reflections by the singer taking a lonely walk in winter, thinking back on his or her lost love.

Contents

The piece crosses over the line from classical music to Broadway to cabaret. [1] Where the Schubert masterpiece features words by Wilhelm Müller portraying a jilted young man's wandering the snows of the Vienna woods and ultimately sinking into madness, the Yeston lyrics depict a contemporary young woman wandering a snowy Central Park in New York City and finding recovery and hope on her journey.

December Songs paints a vivid portrait of a worldly young woman, jilted and adrift in a wintry New York City, interpreting everything she encounters as a reflection of her broken heart through richly varied melodies and striking yet unforced poetic imagery.

It has been recorded six times in English, and once each in French, German, and Polish.

Performances and recordings

Premiere

The work was written as a result of Yeston being commissioned to write a piece for the 1991 centennial celebration of New York's Carnegie Hall, where it was performed by cabaret singer Andrea Marcovicci and an uncredited pianist. [2] It was performed at the Weill Recital Hall, which was packed with Broadway and nightclub luminaries, who gave it a thunderous ovation. The New York Times indicated the uniqueness of the score as Yeston's confident marriage of the classic and the contemporaneity that would likely lead to its enduring nature." [3] A recording of Marcovicci's performance was released the following year on January 1. The Chicago Tribune commented: "Though it`s true that Yeston is hardly the first composer to create an epic song cycle, no one has put one together quite the way he has. Neither the German romantics nor the French Impressionists nor the American modernists conceived a cycle in a pop idiom and with the emotional depth of the best musical theater. Yet that`s precisely what Yeston has created in ”December Songs,” which is graced by melodies that are Mozartean in their simplicity, harmonies that plainly underscore the drama and lyrics at once poetic and colloquial. Imagine a Rodgers and Hart musical for a cast of one-and with no dialogue, dancing or similar distractions-and you begin to see how ”December Songs” grips an audience. Like Franz Schubert`s far darker song cycle ”Die Winterreise” (”The Winter Journey”), to which Yeston`s piece loosely refers, ”December Songs” comprises soliloquies from a character who yearns for a lost love” [4]

Subsequent performances

December Songs has been performed worldwide including France, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Poland, [5]

It had a limited run for three months in 2004 at the Theatre du Renard in Paris, where it was sung in French by Isabelle Georges. It has been recorded seven times in English by Marcovicci, Georges, Harolyn Blackwell, [6] and others, in German by Pia Douwes, with a German translation by Wolfgang Adenberg, [7] in Polish by Edyta Krzemien, [8] also in English (in the Netherlands) by Hetty Sponselee and Sheila Conolly, [9] and in French by Georges.

Two time Tony nominee Laura Osnes recently featured December Songs in her 54 Below debut, Laura Osnes Sings Maury Yeston, and on her album If I Tell You. [10] December Songs was recorded with a male singer for the first time in 2017 by New York cabaret singer Stearns Matthews. [11] On November 11, 2022, a new recording with a 37 piece orchestra, December Songs for Voice and Orchestra, starred Victoria Clark with orchestrations by Larry Hochman was released. [12]

Song list

  1. "December Snow"
  2. "Where Are You Now"
  3. "Please Let's Not Even Say Hello"
  4. "When Your Love Is New"
  5. "Bookseller In The Rain"
  6. "My Grandmother's Love Letters"
  7. "I Am Longing"
  8. "I Had A Dream About You"
  9. "By The River"
  10. "What A Relief"

Notes

  1. ↑ Titled December Songs for voice and orchestra on the 2022 recording featuring Victoria Clark

Related Research Articles

A song cycle is a group, or cycle, of individually complete songs designed to be performed in sequence, as a unit.

Maury Yeston is an American composer, lyricist and music theorist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau</span> German lyric baritone and conductor (1925–2012)

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music. One of the most famous Lieder performers of the post-war period, he is best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's Lieder, particularly "Winterreise" of which his recordings with accompanists Gerald Moore and Jörg Demus are still critically acclaimed half a century after their release.

<i>Die schöne Müllerin</i> Song cycle by Franz Schubert

Die schöne Müllerin, is a song cycle by Franz Schubert from 1823 based on 20 poems by Wilhelm Müller. It is the first of Schubert's two seminal cycles , and a pinnacle of Lied repertoire.

<i>Winterreise</i> Song cycle composed by Franz Schubert

Winterreise is a song cycle for voice and piano by Franz Schubert, a setting of 24 poems by German poet Wilhelm Müller. It is the second of Schubert's two song cycles on Müller's poems, the earlier being Die schöne Müllerin.

Maude Amber McAfee-Maggart is an American cabaret singer and recording artist who performs throughout the United States and Europe, but most often in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ian Bostridge</span> English tenor (born 1964)

Ian Charles Bostridge CBE is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera and lieder singer.

<i>Phantom</i> (musical) Musical by Maury Yeston and Arthur Kopit

Phantom is a musical with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Arthur Kopit. Based on Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel The Phantom of the Opera, the musical was first presented in Houston, Texas in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PS Classics</span> Record label

PS Classics is a record label that specializes in musical theatre and standard vocals, founded in 2000 by Grammy-nominated freelance producer Tommy Krasker and singer/actor Philip Chaffin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria Clark</span> American musical theatre actress (born 1959)

Victoria Clark is an American actress, musical theatre soprano, and director. Clark has performed in numerous Broadway musicals and in other theatre, film and television works. Her voice can also be heard on various cast albums and in several animated films. In 2008, she released her first solo album titled Fifteen Seconds of Grace. A five-time Tony Award nominee, Clark won her first Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 2005 for The Light in the Piazza. She also won the Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, and the Joseph Jefferson Award for the role. She won a second Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical in 2023 for Kimberly Akimbo.

Andrea Louisa Marcovicci is an American actress and singer.

<i>Nine</i> (musical) 1982 American stage musical

Nine is a musical initiated by and with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Arthur Kopit. It is based on the 1963 film 8½.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Osnes</span> American actress

Laura Ann Osnes is an American actress and singer known for her work on the Broadway stage. She has played starring roles in Grease as Sandy, South Pacific as Nellie Forbush, Anything Goes as Hope Harcourt, and Bonnie and Clyde as Bonnie Parker, for which she received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical. She also starred in the title role of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella on Broadway, for which she received a Drama Desk Award and her second Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elena Gerhardt</span> German opera singer

Elena Gerhardt was a German mezzo-soprano singer associated with the singing of German classical lieder, of which she was considered one of the great interpreters. She emigrated to London in October 1934.

<i>Goya: A Life in Song</i> 1989 Spanish album

Goya: A Life in Song is a musical theatre work with music and lyrics by American composer Maury Yeston, first released as a concept album in 1989 featuring Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo. Domingo released the Spanish-language version of the album Goya: Una vida hecha canción in 1992.

<i>Titanic</i> (musical) 1997 musical based on the sinking of RMS Titanic

Titanic is a musical with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Peter Stone. It is based on the story of the RMS Titanic which sank on its maiden voyage on April 15, 1912.

Larry Hochman is an American orchestrator and composer. He has won four Emmy Awards for his original music on the TV series Wonder Pets! and a Tony Award for his orchestrations for The Book of Mormon.

<i>What Is Love?</i> (Andrea Marcovicci album) 1992 studio album by Andrea Marcovicci

What is Love? is a 1992 cabaret album by Andrea Marcovicci. It was issued as part of a Cabaret series by DRG Records. Marcovicci is accompanied by Glenn Mehrback at the piano.

<i>Let me tell you</i> (Abrahamsen) Song cycle by Hans Abrahamsen

Let me tell you is a song cycle for soprano and orchestra by the Danish composer Hans Abrahamsen. The work was commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic with support from the Danish Arts Foundation. It is based on the eponymous 2008 novel let me tell you by the writer Paul Griffiths. Its world premiere was given by the soprano Barbara Hannigan and the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Andris Nelsons on December 20, 2013.

Stearns Matthews is an American, New York-based cabaret singer, recording artist, director, teacher, and pianist. He has performed throughout the United States as well as the United Kingdom.

References

  1. ↑ Vitaris, Paul (Spring, 1997). "The Unsinkable Maury Yeston". Show Music: The Musical Theatre Magazine: 17-23
  2. ↑ Pogrebin, Robin (May 19, 2003). "A Song in His Psyche, As Hummable as Fame". The New York Times . Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  3. ↑ Gurewitsch, Matthew (January 5, 1992). "CLASSICAL MUSIC; Here is the 'Winter Journey' Sopranos Have Long Needed". The New York Times.
  4. ↑ "`DECEMBER SONGS` A FULL CYCLE". Chicago Tribune. February 12, 1992. Retrieved September 12, 2024.
  5. ↑ Monodramu
  6. ↑ ["Strange Hurt" RCA Victor 09026-61944-2]
  7. ↑ gallissas,verlag
  8. ↑ "Teatr Muzyczny w Poznaniu".
  9. ↑ Sponselee
  10. ↑ PS Classics
  11. ↑ December Songs , retrieved December 19, 2017
  12. ↑ Gans, Andrew. "New Recording of Maury Yeston's December Songs, With Tony Winner Victoria Clark, Released November 11", Playbill, November 11, 2022
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.