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Some readers of Simon's Place have requested to hear a recording from the February 2, 2006 performance by Mary Craig and Elizabeth Ballantyne of Mahler's Kindertotenlieder. Unfortunately, we did not record that performance.
However, I do have two recordings to share with you from recent performances. I consider these recordings also to represent, in some way, the singer that I have become since Simon's death. I know that my emotional and life experiences have informed my ability to interpret these pieces, similarly to the Mahler.
In May 2005, I performed several times during my 20th reunion at Oberlin College and Conservatory. Helen Taylor, a longtime family friend and classmate of my mother, Ann Craig, had asked me to sing two pieces during a 50th reunion concert. We repeated the selections in a Reunion Recital (Classes of '84. '85, '86) in Kulas Recital Hall on May 28, 2005 (as recorded below).
50th Reunion Recital in Warner Concert Hall on May 28, 2005
Lovliest of Trees (2.8 MB mp3 file)
Music by John Duke, text by A.E. Housman
Mary Craig, soprano (Class of 1986) and Helen Taylor, piano (Class of 1955)
Lovliest of trees, the cherry now
Is hung with bloom along the bough,
And stands about the woodland ride
Wearing white for Eastertide.
Now, of my threescore years and ten,
Twenty will not come again,
And take from seventy springs a score,
It only leaves me fifty more.
And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow.
Didos Lament (5.3 MB mp3 file)
Music by Henry Purcell from the opera Dido and Aeneas
Mary Craig, soprano (Class of 1986) and Helen Taylor, piano (Class of 1955)
Recitative
Thy hand, Belinda, darkness shades me.
On thy bosom let me rest.
More I would, but death invades me.
Death is now a welcome guest.
Aria
When I am laid in earth, may my wrongs create
No trouble in thy breast.
Remember me, but ah! forget my fate.
More Photos
Miriam plays with her new friend, Emily Folan, after the 20th Reunion Recital in Kulas Recital Hall on May 28, 2005
Performers in the 20th Reunion Recital in Kulas Recital Hall on May 28, 2005
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