Songs of Earth and of Heaven

Audrey Luna performed at the DIA on Friday as part of the Friday Night Live series. She has performed all over Europe, including The Louvre, Wien, Berlin, Salzburg, St. John the Divine, etc. I am not sure how she ended up in Detroit, but I feel very fortunate that I just happened to plan my DIA visit the same night of her performance. It was one of the most brilliant things I've heard in a very long time. She sang in the Ford mural room just past the sparkle ceiling room. : ) [pictured above without the sparkles] Audrey has perfect technique, but more importantly, she genuinely connects with the meaning of the music and conveys that to the audience. All of her songs had to do with spirituality. She sang pieces by Aaron Copland, Charles Ives, Maurice Ravel, Samuel Barber and Olivier Messiaen. I see that they just applied the umbrella term "spirituality" in the description, but all the songs had Judeo-Christian origins.

A few program notes:

"The performance tonight is a program exploring themes present in the special exhibition now on view, Monet to Dali, which focuses on how works of art can both evoke and project different moods and states of mind. The paintings and sculptures make visible the often vague world of human emotions. Building on that theme, Audrey Luna and Brad Caldwell explore how pieces of music can communicate the emotive nature of spirituality present in various belief systems. Listen as Audrey performs pieces that convey the power of spiritual beliefs through melody and lyrics" (Friday Night Live at The Detroit Institute of Arts Program Notes)

My thoughts on some of the pieces:

Aaron Copland - 12 Poems of Emily Dickinson

I do not like how Copland writes for voice. However, I do like the poems of Emily Dickinson. She sang The Chariot. Because I could not stop for death, he kindly stopped for me...

Charles Ives is a completely different story. He took American vernacular, negro spirituals and translated them into a classical style in the most brilliant way possible. "At the River" (1916) and "In the Mornin'" (1929) were the best. Please read the words for "At the River".

Then, Audrey sang Deux chansons Hebraique by Maurice Ravel, or 2 Hebrew songs. The Kaddisch is a Jewish mourning song. I think that was my favorite overall piece. I wonder if this is recorded anywhere. And the other one was in Yiddish, but I do not remember much about it.

I was not too impressed with the songs by Samuel Barber: St. Ita's Vision, The Crucifixion and Desire for Hermitage. I know that I am supposed to be impressed. It just wasn't my taste. He wrote these songs specifically for a highly respected soprano, Leontyne Price, but I don't like this style of singing. Now if I were to say that I didn't appreciate the music of Barber on the whole, there would be something very wrong with me.

Olivier Massiaen writes unspeakably beautiful music. Chants de Terre et de Ciel (Songs of Earth and of the Sky). Massiaen was also devout Roman Catholic and a devout naturalist with mild synaesthesia, which is probably a near perfect combination of things to make up a composer. Audrey sang Bail avec Mi, pour ma femme. (agreement with me, for my wife) and Resurrection. I wish I could find the words to "Bail avec mi". It was a love poem to his wife.