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Track(s) taken from CDA66920

Song to the witch of the cloisters

First line:
Old lady in the herb garden
composer
1967
author of text

Robert White (tenor), Samuel Sanders (piano)
Recording details: July 1996
All Saints' Church, East Finchley, London, United Kingdom
Produced by Mark Brown
Engineered by Julian Millard
Release date: April 1997
Total duration: 2 minutes 56 seconds
 

Reviews

‘This is a very charming record’ (Gramophone)

‘A delightful, imaginatively wide-ranging anthology. A most enjoyable entertainment as well as a true voyage of discovery’ (Hi-Fi News)

‘I felt as if I was discovering these songs for the first time’ (Soundscapes, Australia)
John Corigliano is one of America’s leading composers today. His opera The Ghosts of Versailles, which he wrote with librettist William M Hoffman, scored a huge success at its Metropolitan Opera premiere in 1990. John is a lifelong friend. When he wrote his song cycle The Cloisters with Hoffman in 1967 he dedicated Song to the Witch of The Cloisters to me. It is a thrilling piece to sing because it is based on a real-life—somewhat mysterious—lady who used to roam about the Fort Tryon Park gardens of The Cloisters, located in upper Manhattan. Bill Hoffman’s fantasy had her culling poisonous herbs for nefarious purposes. I have never had the courage to ask John what I might have done to deserve such an honour…

from notes by Robert White © 1997

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