Songs of Ned Rorem

1	The Santa Fe Songs, song
2	Clouds, for voice & piano
3	Early in the Morning, for
4	The Serpent, for voice &
5	Now sleeps the crimson pe
6	The Santa Fe Songs, song
7	I Strolled Across an Open
8	To a Young Girl, for voic
9	Jeannie with the Light Br
10	Poèms pour la paix, for m
11	For Poulenc, for voice &
12	Little Elegy, for voice &
13	Alleluia, song for voice
14	Look Down Fair Moon, for
15	O you whom I often and si
16	I will always love you, f
17	The Tulip Tree, for voice
18	The Santa Fe Songs, song
20	The Lordly Hudson, for vo
21	O Do Not Love Too Long, f
22	Far-Far-Away, for voice &
23	For Susan, for voice & pi
24	A Journey, for voice & pi
25	Sometimes with One I Love
26	Love, for voice & piano
27	Orchids, for voice & pian
28	Stopping by Woods on a Sn
29	Poems of Love and the Rai
30	Nantucket Songs, song cyc
31	The Santa Fe Songs, song
32	Whitman Cantata, for men'
Songs of Ned Rorem
1.	The Santa Fe Songs, song cycle of 12 poems of Witter Bynner for medium voice, violin, viola, cello & piano: Santa Fe Songs: No. 4, Sonnet 2:02
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
2.	Clouds, for voice & piano (from "Poems of Paul Goodman") 2:11
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
3.	Early in the Morning, for voice & piano 2:01
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
4.	The Serpent, for voice & piano (from "Three Poems of Theodore Roethke") 2:07
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
5.	Now sleeps the crimson petal, for voice & piano (from "Poems of Tennyson") 4:21
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
6.	The Santa Fe Songs, song cycle of 12 poems of Witter Bynner for medium voice, violin, viola, cello & piano: Santa Fe Songs: No. 2, Opus 101 2:55
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
7.	I Strolled Across an Open Field, for voice & piano 1:08
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
8.	To a Young Girl, for voice & piano 1:36
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
9.	Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair, for voice & piano 2:40
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
10.	Poems pour la paix, for medium voice & strings: Ode 1:40
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
11.	For Poulenc, for voice & piano 2:35
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
12.	Little Elegy, for voice & piano 1:20
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
13.	Alleluia, song for voice & piano 2:49
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
14.	Look Down Fair Moon, for voice & piano 1:18
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
15.	O you whom I often and silently come, for voice & piano (from "Poems of Walt Whitman") 0:33
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
16.	I will always love you, for voice, string trio & piano 2:24
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
17.	The Tulip Tree, for voice & piano 1:33
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
18.	The Santa Fe Songs, song cycle of 12 poems of Witter Bynner for medium voice, violin, viola, cello & piano: Santa Fe Songs: No. 8, The Wintry Mind 2:35
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
19.	I Am Rose, for voice & piano 0:28
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
20.	The Lordly Hudson, for voice & piano (from "Poems of Paul Goodman") 2:24
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
21.	O Do Not Love Too Long, for voice & piano 1:25
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
22.	Far-Far-Away, for voice & piano (from "Poems of Tennyson") 1:49
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
23.	For Susan, for voice & piano (from "Poems of Paul Goodman") 1:10
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
24.	A Journey, for voice & piano 1:26
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
25.	Sometimes with One I Love, for voice & piano (from "Poems of Walt Whitman") 1:34
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
26.	Love, for voice & piano 1:49
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
27.	Orchids, for voice & piano 2:12
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
28.	Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, for voice & piano 1:54
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
29.	Poems of Love and the Rain, song cycle for mezzo-soprano & piano: Do I love you more than a day? 1:36
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
30.	Nantucket Songs, song cycle for voice & piano: Ferry Me Across the Water 1:34
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
31.	The Santa Fe Songs, song cycle of 12 poems of Witter Bynner for medium voice, violin, viola, cello & piano: The Sowers (Santa Fe Songs No. 12) 1:46
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau
32.	Whitman Cantata, for men's chorus, 12 brass & timpani: The Shadow, My Likeness 1:49
	Composed by Ned Rorem
	Performed by Ensemble Oriol, Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau

Barnes & Noble

In some late 20th-century vocal music, words and music sound like they have nothing to do with each other. But that's never the case in Ned Rorem's ravishing songs. Not only does the composer know how to set words so they're easily understood, but every musical impulse is clearly generated from the text. Listen to how economically he evokes the memory of an outdoor Parisian cafe in "Early in the Morning," with a sweet, milky melody and lazy, lilting waltz rhythm. There's tremendous variety in this generous program, yet every song has the composer's appealingly lyrical stamp. Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham has just the right kind of voice and temperament for the Gallic elegance of Rorem's music: Her lustrous tone is crystal clear and her interpretive style is exquisitely poised. Malcolm Martineau (Bryn Terfel's preferred song partner) makes the most of the often deceptively simple piano parts. Rorem once wrote that "whatever my songs are worth, I've never set a bad poem." Judging from this recital, it also seems safe to say that he hasn't composed a bad song yet. Andrew Farach-Colton

All Music Guide

This recital disc does exactly what a great classical record is supposed to do: It illuminates, informs, wakes up the listener to the greatness of the particular music.

Any up to date reference book will state that Ned Rorem (b. Richmond, Indiana 1923) is America's greatest classical song composer. It is not unusual to find a few of his hundreds of songs or a song cycle on a particular disc, and they never fail to evoke admiration.

This disc, though, is a daunting program of thirty-two of his songs, presented back to back. Susan Graham's artistry and vocal beauty kept this listener's ears as fresh for the music after sixty minutes as during the first. She illuminates just how admirably wrought and varied Rorem's songs are, how carefully they are guarded against excess gesture, how natural the vocal lines are, at how often they create the illusion that the notes were born directly from the words of the poetry.

The disc shows what a careful reader of poetry Rorem is. Recent American poets such as Roethke, O'Hara, Bynner, and Goodwin are presented side-by-side with Tennyson, Yeats, Frost, and Whitman.

The accompaniment is mostly by pianist Malcolm Martineau, who is outstanding and reveals the deft and unobtrusive way the piano texture supports the songs. (A fine example is in Rorem's re-setting of the words and melody to Stephen Foster's Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair to a piano texture that is light and airy of Jeannie herself.) A few songs are accompanied by members of a piano trio called the Oriol Ensemble, who are also fine. The September 1999 recording was made at Teldec Studios in Berlin by producer Tim Oldham and sound engineer Jacques Doll, and is clean and appropriately intimate. Joseph Stevenson