Metropolitan Opera tenor
Eric Ferring
has a warm voice that is enjoyable in itself, and it is favored by the intimate, moderate dimensions of this recital, accompanied not only by
Ferring
's frequent collaborator
Madeline Slettedahl
on piano but also by
Quatuor Agate
in works by
Faure
and
Arthur Shepherd
. The combination is something that might have appeared in a true chamber recital of a century ago, and it sets and maintains a deeply reflective mood, but there is more to
We have tomorrow
than its surface beauties.
assembles a program that leans toward the French strain in American music without holding to it exclusively, and the result is a varied sequence of songs with a solidly grounded stratum and several rarer items. One is the set of
Melodies passageres, Op. 27
, of
Samuel Barber
, in French (and to French-language texts by
Rainer Maria Rilke
, so both artists were working in a second language, so to speak). These are underrated, philosophical pieces originally written for
Eileen Farrell
. The songs of
Florence Beatrice Price
have not been revived to the degree of other parts of her output, and the two French-tinged pieces here, to texts by
Langston Hughes
, are superb. Even less familiar and even more philosophical is the
Triptych
of
Shepherd
, to texts by
Rabindranath Tagore
(in English). The texts of
's nine-song cycle
La bonne chanson, Op. 61
, by the young
Paul Verlaine
, are also challenging and trace the path of a love affair. With excellent
Delos
sound from Chicago's WFMT studio, this is a vocal recital with both beauty and depth. ~ James Manheim