LIEDER ALIVE! to Present Erikson’s 2nd Recital

As was announced this past August, soprano Heidi Moss Erickson was scheduled to perform in two of the LIEDER ALIVE! season’s programs. The first of those programs was the Grand Opening, which took place at the beginning of this past October. The second will take place at the beginning of next month.

The program will consist of two major works from two consecutive centuries. The earlier selection will be the final major undertaking by Richard Strauss. This was a set of four songs composed in 1948, which were collectively published as Four Last Songs, the title provided for the publication by Strauss’ friend Ernst Roth. There was no definitive order for the songs. Roth’s publication did not follow the order in which they were composed, nor did it follow the order of the first performance, given by soprano Kirstein Flagstad singing under the baton of Wilhelm Furtwängler. This is a minor quibble, since Strauss himself never saw the collection as a song cycle.

Soprano Heidi Moss Erickson (upper right) with (clockwise) violinist Joel Pattinson, cellist Peter Myers, and pianist Paul Schrage (courtesy of LIEDER ALIVE!)

The current century will be represented by Ned Rorem, who only begin to work on a larger scale after the turn of the century. His first effort, which is the work that will be performed, was the ten-part song cycle Aftermath, which he composed on 2002. The title was intended as a reflection on responses to September 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked commercial airline flights to crash into both of the towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia. Aftermath was conceived as chamber music, with the vocalist accompanied by a piano trio. Thus, Paul Schrage, the pianist for the recital, will be joined by violinist Joel Pattinson and cellist Peter Myers.

This program will take place on Sunday, April 2. The performance will begin at 5 p.m., and doors will open at 4:30 p.m. As usual, the venue will be the Noe Valley Ministry, which is located at 1021 Sanchez Street, between 23rd Street and Elizabeth Street. Tickets are being handled through an Eventbrite event page. $80 seats are available for the VIP Reserved section. General Admission is $40 with a $25 rate for students, seniors, and working artists.