Mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani was known primarily as a champion of new music, a singer who could be counted on to bring the highest expertise and commitment to untested new repertoire that might have been considered unsingable: cutting-edge scores by composers like Crumb, Boulez, Carter, Druckman, and Birtwistle. In the public imagination, she was so closely tied to new music that it was easy to forget that her repertoire was broadly inclusive, ranging from Medieval and Renaissance songs through Handel, Mozart, Schubert, ...
Read More
Mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani was known primarily as a champion of new music, a singer who could be counted on to bring the highest expertise and commitment to untested new repertoire that might have been considered unsingable: cutting-edge scores by composers like Crumb, Boulez, Carter, Druckman, and Birtwistle. In the public imagination, she was so closely tied to new music that it was easy to forget that her repertoire was broadly inclusive, ranging from Medieval and Renaissance songs through Handel, Mozart, Schubert, Berlioz, Brahms, Mahler, and Ravel, as well as scores on which the ink was barely dry. In this two-disc set she focuses on more traditional repertoire, songs by Haydn, Beethoven, Debussy, Strauss, Poulenc, and Gershwin, plus modern works by Crumb, Kenneth Frazelle, and Stanley Walden. Her singing in traditional repertoire is no less striking and distinctive than in the contemporary. She brought an impeccable, intelligent, intuitive musicianship to everything she approached, and sang with...
Read Less