This might be out of place. Most of the entries seem to be in the Jazz/popular/rock category. But I am a classical nut and I have just been immersing myself in the music of Samuel Barber (of Adagio for Strings fame).
Last night I heard a live performance of Barber’s marvelous Knoxville Summer of 1915 with piano and soprano. But this afternoon I had to play it again in the Columbia Odyssey performance with William Strickland and the Dumbarton Oaks Orchestra. My copy is on vinyl, “electronically rechanneled for stereo,” but it sounded surprisingly good. The soprano is Eleanor Steber, who commissioned the work from Barber in the first place, and she is out-and-out wonderful. Leontyne Price has recorded it, but she is too “operatic” for my taste. I have not heard Dawn Upshaw’s version. Great piece: warm, romantic and nostalgic. The words are a poetry/prose piece by James Agee who (he said) took only 90 minutes to write it.
After that, I had to rehear my recording of Dover Beach, sung by Barber himself on Nonesuch Records. Another great piece, this one put to words by Matthew Arnold. Dietrich Fischer Dieskau has another version: more polished and professional, but not as authentic.
