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

December Songs [lower-alpha 1] is a song cycle 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 pictures in richly varied melodies and striking yet unforced poetic images a worldly young woman, jilted and adrift in a wintry New York City, reading all she sees for commentary on her broken heart.

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. [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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maury Yeston</span> American composer, lyricist and music theorist (born 1945)

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>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.

<i>Grand Hotel</i> (musical)

Grand Hotel is a musical with a book by Luther Davis, music and lyrics by Robert Wright and George Forrest, and additional music and lyrics by Maury Yeston.

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 Leading Actress in a Musical in 2005 for her performance in 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 Leading Actress in a Musical in 2023 for her performance in Kimberly Akimbo.

Andrea Louisa Marcovicci is an American actress and singer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siw Malmkvist</span> Swedish schlager singer

Siw Gunnel Margareta Malmkvist is a Swedish schlager singer and actress popular in Scandinavia and West Germany. She had a number one hit in West Germany in 1964 with "Liebeskummer lohnt sich nicht", and on 18 July 1964 she became the first Swede to have a hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, when "Sole Sole Sole", a duet with Italian singer Umberto Marcato, entered the chart, peaking at No. 58.

<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.

<i>Goya: A Life in Song</i> 1989 studio album by Plácido Domingo and others

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>Death Takes a Holiday</i> (musical)

Death Takes a Holiday is a musical with music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Peter Stone and Thomas Meehan. The story is adapted from the 1924 Italian play La Morte in Vacanza by Alberto Casella, which was adapted in English for Broadway in 1929 by Walter Ferris. That play was made into a 1934 film of the same name starring Fredric March, which was remade in 1998 as Meet Joe Black, starring Brad Pitt. The story of the musical is about lonely Death, who takes the form of a handsome young prince to understand human emotion. He falls in love with an engaged young woman and learns about love and sacrifice.

<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)

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. https://www.chicagotribune.com/1992/02/12/december-songs-a-full-cycle/
  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