Marc Blitzstein: Zipperfly & Other Songs features the New York Festival of Song, fresh from its triumph premiering Leonard Bernstein's valedictory work Arias and Barcarolles. NYFOS has subsequntly turned its attention to Bernstein's own primary inspiration among his colleagues, though Bernstein did not manage to live long enough to see this disc released. Nevertheless, from this disc it is easy to experience what in Blitzstein Bernstein gained; a taste for sassy, swaggering bluesiness and an appreciation for populist melody ...
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Marc Blitzstein: Zipperfly & Other Songs features the New York Festival of Song, fresh from its triumph premiering Leonard Bernstein's valedictory work Arias and Barcarolles. NYFOS has subsequntly turned its attention to Bernstein's own primary inspiration among his colleagues, though Bernstein did not manage to live long enough to see this disc released. Nevertheless, from this disc it is easy to experience what in Blitzstein Bernstein gained; a taste for sassy, swaggering bluesiness and an appreciation for populist melody that Bernstein turned right around into his own work, utilizing, of course, his own style. Some listeners will find certain pieces here so close to the idiom of Broadway that one might wonder, "What makes them classical?" Blitzstein often interrupts his settings with laconic dissonances, and some of his phrase lengths do not correspond to usual practice, though certain songs do not depart much from the model, for example, "I Wish it So." His choice of subjects, likewise, tend to be...
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