Virgil Thomson on the cover of the album being discussed (courtesy of AMT Public Relations)
This past October Everbest Music released a two-CD set of chamber music by Virgil Thomson, reissuing two albums previously produced by Northeastern Records. The title of the new version is Portraits, Self-Portraits and Songs, and the primary performer is pianist Anthony Tommasini. The original Portraits and Self-Portraits album consists of short pieces, mostly of piano music but also featuring instrumentalists Sharan Leventhal (violin), Fenwick Smith (flute), Frederic T. Cohen (oboe), Ronald Haroutunian (bassoon), and Jonathan Miller (cello). The vocal offerings were taken from Mostly About Love with Tommasini accompanying soprano Nancy Armstrong, mezzo D’Anna Fortunato, tenors Frank Kelley and Paul Kirby, baritone Sanford Sylvan, and bass David Ripley. Percussionist James Russel Smith joins Sylvan and Tommasini for settings of two song texts by William Shakespeare.
Almost all of the selections are relatively brief in duration. Thomson may be best known for the two full-length operas he composed with Gertrude Stein as his librettist, Four Saints in Three Acts and The Mother of Us All. However, in this collection he is a consummate and imaginative miniaturist. The longest uninterrupted offering in the entire set is “Capital Capitals,” again working with a text by Stein. In all of the remaining selections, it is clear that, whether writing for instruments or setting text, Thomson knew what he wanted to say and then knew how to keep silent after he said it.
Thomson was often notorious for his feisty personality. However, he clearly had many friends and no shortage of intimate feelings. Those feelings emerge in these engaging miniatures, making for a highly satisfying listening experience.
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