Sarah Brailey Gives World Premiere of Newly Restored Song Cycles of John Harbison at Token Creek
By Afton Markay(Photo credit: Brynn Bruijn)
Token Creek Chamber Music hosted a concert on Oct. 9 showcasing works by John Harbison.
Soprano Sarah Brailey and pianist Tomasz Lis gave the North American premiere of the complete and restored version of Harbison’s “Miłosz Songs.” The cycle was originally commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for soprano Dawn Upshaw in 2006. The piano version of “Miłosz Songs” originally included only six of the eleven poems, however, this version restores the cycle to completion.
Later on the program mezzo-soprano Clara Osowsi and Lis premiered “The Poet Sings: Late Songs of John Harbison.” This set includes “Stazione Dei Termini” twelve poems of Michael Fried, “Songs After Sappho,” “A Clear Day And No Memories” with poems by Wallace Stevens, and “The Couple In The Park,” with the late words of Louise Gluck.
Harbison said of the these new works, “In my practice, texts will arrive, unsought, at the right moment. The essential ‘opening of the curtain’ occurs when a lived experience links up insistently with a writer’s words, which then seem ready, even destined for a new role.”
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