Catalogue

Summary:

Grammy Awards: 62nd Awards (2019) – Nominee – Best Classical Solo Vocal Album

“…one of the finest examples of Kurtág’s vocal music I have encountered. Narucki’s probing intelligence is matched by a remarkable vocal talent, and the result is a triumph. All the assisting artists are full participants and deserve praise too. Excellent recorded sound rounds out a superlative release.” – Fanfare

“Narucki give[s] a persuasive performance, ensuring that the shrieks and swoops with which Kurtág underlines the extreme emotions involved do not get in the way of the soaring, immersive eloquence that is the music’s strongest suit.” – Gramophone

“[The Seven Songs], a highlight in this album of Kurtag’s vocal works, pass in just over nine minutes: dark little pools of fervor, articulated by Ms. Narucki with precision and tenderness and accompanied by just the percussive cimbalom, played here with richly pianistic resonance by Nicholas Tolle.” – New York Times (Recordings on the Year 2019)

Grammy® Award-winning American soprano Susan Narucki, one of today’s most committed advocates of the music of our time, has a deep and lasting working relationship with Hungarian composer György Kurtág which dates back to 1986. Susan’s luminous tone and distinctive artistry and Kurtág’s idiosyncratic fusion of poetry and music come together in this quintessential recorded collection of some of the composer’s most iconoclastic vocal works. In Susan’s words, “I have spent much of my life immersed in this repertoire, and it has become essential to the way I understand music; it is the heart of my practice as a musician.” Equally appreciative, Kurtág acknowledges Susan, “who sang so warmly, purely, so ‘integer’ these songs – with thanks and love.”

Tracklist:

GYÖRGY KURTÁG (b. 1926)

1. Scenes from a Novel, Op. 19 (19.32)
Fifteen songs to poems by Rimma Dalos for soprano, violin, double bass & cimbalom

2. Three Old Inscriptions, Op. 25, for voice and piano (6.01)

3. S.K. Remembrance Noise, Op. 12 (6.36)
Seven songs to poems by Dezső Tandori for soprano & violin

4. Attila József Fragments, Op. 20, for soprano solo (12.28)

5. Seven Songs, Op. 22 (9.15)
to poems by Amy Károlyi and a haiku by Kobayashi Issa for voice & cimbalom

6. Requiem for the Beloved, Op. 26, for soprano & piano (text: Rimma Dalos) (5.09)

7. A Twilight in Winter Recollected, Op. 8 (6.00)
Four fragments on poems by Pál Gulyás for soprano, violin & cimbalom

Total Duration: 65.00

Susan Narucki, soprano

Donald Berman, piano (2, 6)
Curtis Macomber, violin (1, 3, 7)
Nicholas Tolle, cimbalom (1, 5, 7)
Kathryn Schulmeister, double bass (1)

Recording: 22–24 February & 28–29 June 2018, Conrad Prebys Concert Hall, University of California at San Diego
Producer: Judith Sherman | Engineer: Andrew Munsey | Assistant Engineer: Jonathan Yergler (February)
Editing Assistant: Jeanne Velonis