The acclaimed baritone Andrew Garland is front and center on a new album of songs by Gabriela Lena Frank, and Dmitri Shostakovich on Art Song Colorado’s label (DASP 005, release date August 5, 2022). “El Rebelde” (“The Rebel”) brings together the vocal compositions of Frank and Shostakovich, two composers who transformed Spanish language song through their innovative settings. In this insider interview, we spoke with Mr. Garland and Art Song Colorado founder Eapen Leubner about the new recording.
Why did you want to record / produce a recording of / this particular repertoire?
ANDREW GARLAND: I have been in love with Gabriela’s music since 2006 when I first met her and the Songs of Cifar [a collection of songs by Frank, two of which were premiered by Mr. Garland]. The driving rhythms, the jazz harmonies, the non-classical vocal techniques, the Spanish language, the high F#s and Gs. I feel that all of these are my strengths. And let’s be honest: any performer chooses a piece partly because they can sound good doing it. And besides her innovative music-making, I adore Gabi’s philosophy: when western “classical music” assimilates another culture, it must make both cultures equal: one culture can’t dominate the other.
EAPEN LEUBNER: It is sometimes a challenge to decide what to produce. In this case, Andy's passion for the music of Gabriela Frank shone through. I was new to the music but hearing the repertoire made me made the decision easy.
What do you think makes this music distinctive?
EL: Gabriela's compositional voice merges many regional styles but still frames the music in the traditional art song format of piano and voice. The music plays around the edges of the genre by using some sprech-stimme techniques and spoken word, longer piano solos and a musical language that pairs with the poetry like a fine wine with a beautiful dinner.
AG: To start, the poetry sources are a little off-the-beaten path, even for 21st century “art song”.
For centuries, composers have written music that has the piano imitate other instruments. Songs of Cifar will someday be a cycle for orchestra including Nicaraguan marimba (the Nicaraguan marimba has reeds hanging from the bars that add a buzzing sound) and charango (a small guitar after which an entire Pan-American genre is named). In the second song, “Me diste ¡oh Dios! una hija,” the piano imitates both these instruments at the same time. And Jeremy Reger, our pianist, is on fire when he plays this. This song more than any has the driving rhythms I was talking about.
And the vocal score. I mentioned the high notes. I when I first started working with Gabi I mentioned to her that F# was my favorite high note. There are a few juicy ones in the first song (“El nacimeiento de cifar”) and she wrote in several more for the premiere of “Eufemia.”
By the way, I put “art song” in quotations above because there needs to be a better name for the genre. Most people I know - including other musicians - are put off by the term. Other people ask what “art song” is, I tell them, and then they’re put off by the term. I heard an anecdote: once Samuel Ramey bumped into Barbara Streisand in an apartment building in New York. A mutual friend introduced them and said that Sam is a singer. She asked him “Oh, what tunes do you sing?” They’re all tunes (provided they have a melody which all of these songs do, thank goodness.
How does this repertoire resonate with Art Song Colorado’s mission?
EL: Art Song Colorado (ASC) is dedicated to introducing new audiences to the art song genre. Our projects have included video, puppets, live performance and albums that focus on a theme. Our secondary mission is to support the artistic vision of Colorado artists. "El Rebelde" spoke to me because we hadn’t yet seriously delved into new Spanish-language music and I've admired Andy's career and musicality from a far. This was a two-fer for me.
What does Gabriela Frank’s music mean to you?
EL: I've only known Gabriela's music for the past year and yet, I frequently find myself humming fragments of melody and thinking about lines from the recording session. Her music is, for me, a beginning. I've been given a gift to produce this inaugural set of pieces. If you notice the numbering on the Cifar songs, there will eventually be thirty of them. If fate is kind, I want to be a part of this all the way through to a complete recording that will tell the Cifar songs from beginning to end.
AG: I love sharing music that I love with an audience. I love introducing audiences to new music that makes them think and feel. I love giving audiences renditions of songs they love. In the past 15 years, Songs of Cifar have gone from being one to the other.
Why was music by Shostakovich chosen for this album, and why this particular set of songs? What makes it a good pairing with Frank’s songs?
EL: The idea of the album title "El Rebelde" came from the third Cifar song. We knew that we wanted to pair this music and contrast Gabriela's music with music that would be similarly grounded, yet profoundly different. The Shostakovich had the similarities of the Spanish melodies but, unlike Frank's music, these songs were connected to Russia by both language and harmonics. Both composers show a rebellious streak by remixing the classical art song from a mono-culture (think German Lieder or French Chanson) into a blending of cultures. The result is something that is Russian or Spanish or Nicaraguan and is more than the sum of the parts because they have been so seamlessly combined.
AG: Including the Shostakovich Spanish Songs was Jeremy’s idea. He first suggested it because of the Spanish language connection: these are Spanish folk songs originally in Spanish, translated to Russian. These are a composer writing about another place and all of the mixed, conflicting feelings he has for that place. As we got to know the songs better we discovered that these songs also bring together two cultures seamlessly with both at the fore, neither behind the other.