246. Sweetly Sung

The Concert - Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Work for string orchestra by Phyllis Chen performed by A Far Cry on April 17, 2014 and works for clarinet and piano by Peter Sculthorpe and Richard Stoltzman performed by Richard Stoltzman, clarinet and David Deveau, piano on January 11, 2015.

• Chen, Phyllis: Three Lullabies
• Sculthorpe, Peter: Songs of Sea and Sky
• Traditional: Amazing Grace, arrangement by Richard Stoltzman

On this podcast, we’ll hear three works that we’re grouping under the title Sweetly Sung. All three pieces were written within the past several decades, some based on real, traditional folk songs, others on imagined lullabies.

The first of the three pieces is by composer and pianist Phyllis Chen, who is particularly known for her performances on an instrument rarely seen in the classical concert hall: the toy piano. We’ll hear Chen perform with A Far Cry, a set of three Lullabies she wrote for string orchestra and herself, as soloist.

Following the lullabies are two pieces featuring clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and pianist David Deveau. First is Songs of Sea and Sky, a 1987 piece of about 15 minutes by Australian composer Peter Sculthorpe. The work builds on a traditional tune from the tiny island nation of Saibai.

Last, we’ll hear an arrangement of another traditional tune, this one much more familiar to American listeners: Amazing Grace, arranged by the clarinetist himself, Richard Stoltzman.