JAMES ADLER What About Tomorrow?1. Memento mori: An AIDS Requiem: Pie Jesu2. Beautiful Garden3. Growing4. “Hope” is the thing with feathers5. Dreams6. Beyond Night7. That Star in the Picture8 • James Adler (pn); 8Shana Farr, 1Elizaveta Ulakhovich (sop); 2Victoria Livengood (mez); 3,6Michael Buchanan, 4Kennedy Kanagawa (ten); 1,5,7Perry Sook (bar); 2,5,6,8Adam Fisher (vc); 3,4,8Denise Koncelik (fl); 8Brian Shaw (ob); 2Francis Novak (cl); 1,2Kyle Walker (hn) • ALBANY 1936 (31:17 )

Composer James Adler revisits the pages of Fanfare in a short recital of art songs which are intended, in his own words, to celebrate the musical joy of collaborating with amazing artists (Adler plays the piano part in each of these pieces) and to remember family, friends, and colleagues who are no longer with us. The latter aspect ties in well with the previous disc of his music and playing, entitled Homages & Remembrances, which the reader may access in 43:3. In the present case, he intends the entire Broadway-influenced program to be a tribute in particular to the late Stephen Sondheim, with whom Adler maintained a friendship over many years.

From the opening sounds of What About Tomorrow?, a heartfelt duet for soprano and baritone with horn obligato and piano accompaniment, one realizes that Adler has absorbed the influences from the Broadway stage thoroughly and convincingly. This extremely effective duet is amazingly rendered by Elizaveta Ulakhovich and her husband, Perry Sook. Adler’s poignant text also draws from the ethos of Broadway, and its optimistic tone would make it an appropriate and effective closer for any upbeat show. The memorable quality of Adler’s melodies shows up not only here, but in all the songs in this recital.

Not everything is upbeat, however: The “Pie Jesu” that follows is indeed a more reverent and somber work, given that it is excerpted from the composer’s large-scale Memento mori: An AIDS Requiem. This sober work was Adler’s response to the epidemic that cut down so many people in the prime of their lives. In his Requiem, the “Pie Jesu” movement featured a male chorus to support the mezzo-soprano, but here Adler has replaced the chorus with an instrumental ensemble comprising clarinet, horn, cello, and piano, and I find it every bit as effective as its original version. Adler’s soloist of choice in both versions is Victoria Livengood, whose rich-hued voice is a perfect match for this music, and she effectively captures the piety of the piece.

Like the “Pie Jesu,” the subsequent Beautiful Garden is a gorgeous setting that portrays nature-focused memories. A sublime melody for tenor captivates the listener as an obligato flute floats above it. Michael Buchanan’s lovely lyrical tenor voice is the ideal vehicle to present this song, as though the composer had his voice particularly in mind when he wrote it. Equally luscious is Growing, which sets a text by Mae Richard that describes a boy’s realization that he’s getting taller. The song was commissioned by the Philadelphia Shubert Theater in 1976 and was received with delight by both the original tenor (who was six and a half feet tall himself!) and his audience. Tenor Kennedy Kanagawa renders it impeccably and idiomatically, but I must note that his deliberate production of a boyish voice is a bit covered in a few places in which I would have boosted slightly. Adler states that the last lines of this song, wherein the “boy” sings that he’ll be “all—grown—up—some—day” and “all—finished—too” are deliberately ambiguous in their meaning. Does “finished” relate to the boy’s growing up process, or does it refer to his eventual death? He and librettist Mae Richard have utilized such vagueness in several places, and I find it a most effective device.

Emily Dickinson, who provided the text for “Hope” is the thing with feathers, is doubtless the best-known author set in this program. Adler’s setting of the poem is bittersweet, as the dedicatee, Bruce-Michael Gelbert, succumbed to pancreatic cancer barely more than two months prior to my writing this review. Fortunately, Gelbert was able to hear the work some months before his death. It is marvelously performed here by baritone Perry Sook, who plumbs its bittersweet character. The poignant quality of the music also carries over to Dreams, another lovely and memorable setting resplendently brought to life by tenor Michael Buchanan. The program concludes with two other majestically evocative songs: Beyond Night, a captivating setting of a poem by Rosalie Calabrese, and the title-generating That Star in the Picture, with a text by Carmel Friedman. The latter was originally composed for Marni Nixon, but Adler’s publisher suggested that he recast the song in cabaret fashion for Shana Farr, who brings it off in stunning fashion here, making it the ideal closer for this recital of exquisite songs.

Given the excellence of both the songs themselves and the artists’ rendition of them, I could easily hear any or all of them inserted into just about any Broadway musical to good effect. All of the music is further enhanced by the skill of the instrumental performers, especially including Adler, a most accomplished pianist. Kudos must also be extended to Joseph Patrych, producer and recording engineer of the project. His vivid recording does its part in adding to the luster of this disc. Enthusiasts of this genre will certainly not want to miss this recital, but other music lovers would doubtless find it as attractive a disc as I do. Warmly recommended. David DeBoor Canfield

 

The Broadway Persona of James Adler
By David DeBoor Canfield

Pianist-composer James Adler has been featured in Fanfare in reviews and a previous interview in 39:1 and 43:3, where fairly extensive biographical information may be found. The music and piano artistry of this versatile musician has been well received by my colleagues and me in these pages as well, so I welcomed the opportunity to explore more facets of Adler’s music-making in May of 2023, when I again caught up with him via email.

James, what have you been up to in the almost four years since we last communicated? I trust you’re still writing music, so what do you consider to be some of the most important works you’ve completed since 2019? Have you also continued to give piano recitals and teach at Saint Peter’s University? Have you engaged in any new musical activities?

Thank you for this opportunity to be interviewed by you, again, David. Yes, I am still composing music, as well as performing in concerts. I am still on the Arts Department faculty at Saint Peter’s University, and recently performed in recital on their Arts on Bergen noontime concerts series on April 12th. The concert was titled “Scenes from Childhood.” I performed Schumann’s Kinderszenen, which I first performed at age 12, 60 years ago! I have had a long association in performing my late friend Paul Turok’s music, including his Passacaglia on this program. My good friend, composer and conductor Henco Espag, composed a work for me, Mistieke Feetjies (Mystical Fairies) and I gave its world premiere at this concert. Also, there was something new and fun for me: I closed the concert with my adaptation of the famous Vladimir Horowitz Carmen Variations Fantasy in its 1968 version. I actually made it harder by adding more cadenzas. As you can tell, I’m still combining my love of piano performing along with adapting and playing some concert “warhorses.”

My continuing to compose and arrange is reflected in my new Albany Records release, That Star in the Picture, which we are discussing here. This project required me to adapt new versions of some older works and compose new ones. My late friend, Rosalie Calabrese, had granted me rights and her blessings to set her poem Beyond Night to music. I composed this using Minimalism in the piano part, something new for me. Rosalie’s poetry, dealing with the death of her son, struck me as needing a feeling of emptiness and isolation. The extended piano introduction explores that feeling of isolation; that was my goal in composing the work, in any event.

A close friend and longtime supporter of mine, noted music editor and critic Bruce-Michael Gelbert (of Fire Island [Q]News and [Q]onStage), was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the spring of 2022. To cheer him up, I composed a work in honor of our friendship, ”Hope” is the thing with feathers. I brought the score, with my dedication to Bruce-Michael, and we sang through it together, bringing tears to both of our eyes. I hated the idea that this piece, by the time the recording was to be released it would be in memoriam. Sadly, it is, as Bruce-Michael passed away on March 4, 2023.

To fit my concept of doing chamber versions of some of my art songs, and theater pieces, I prepared new versions and orchestrations for What About Tomorrow?, Beautiful Garden, Growing, and Dreams. My “Pie Jesu” (from Memento mori: An AIDS Requiem) was a much bigger project. I approached Metropolitan Opera star and longtime friend Victoria Livengood about doing a new version for her to record. We discussed the “how to’s” and indeed made it happen.

I’m currently finishing up another fun project: I’ve been commissioned by the Curtis Institute of Music to compose a solo piano work for the Curtis Centenary Commissioning Initiative, 100x100. I will perform and record the work in 2023, the 100th anniversary of the Curtis Institute which happens to coincide with 50th anniversary of my graduation from Curtis.

What motivated you to undertake the particular project under review here of a recording of your theater and art songs? How much time did it require?

I’d always felt that Stephen Sondheim would ever be with us. He had listened to the recordings of some of my concerts I was most proud of. Steve is now gone, and his loss is palpable for many of us who considered him to be our mentor. This album is an homage to Steve and his advice to me to keep going, as well as to honor what he has done to nurture young talent. In my late 20s, when I met Steve, I thought I had all the answers. Well, today I barely know the questions. So, working on this album has been a labor of love, and I first started pulling texts and lyrics together three years ago. I began by playing with combinations of voices. I’d wanted to have an album that would amount to my legacy. During the project, I was privileged to meet Grammy Award-winner Lonnie Park, my creative consultant for this project. His help and guidance has been invaluable and special.

Speaking of that irreplaceable icon of Broadway, Stephen Sondheim, how did he impact you and your music?

He was a true mentor; we kept in touch (primarily through correspondence) for more than 40 years. The arrangement Steve made was for me to share any of my important projects and recordings “that I’m proud of.” We spent some time going through my theater music, and he listened to some of my recital and concert programs. Sometimes, Steve would sound like the “proud uncle,” but at other times, he could be scolding. For my recording of Memento mori (Albany Records), Steve wrote a beautiful note to me saying he “found it beautiful and moving.” He took a look at one point at That Star in the Picture and told me to “keep going” with that, as he liked the drama and the direction of the storyline. For my 9/11 piece, Reflections upon a September Morn (Albany Records, 2011), Steve felt I captured NYC in my combination of English horn with piano tremolos underscoring Walt Whitman’s poetry. Steve often wrote me terse notes, but packed so much into each word. At one point when we first met, he turned to me to tell me I reminded him of a young Leonard Bernstein, but he did not mean that as a compliment! He said that “Lenny” was pulled in so many directions, given his conducting, piano playing, serious music composition, and Broadway show scores. I shared many of my piano discs with Steve, and he would say nice things about them, but when it came to my art songs and their setting of poetry, he was very firm in his ideas. For instance, he made me promise never to have a lyric written to pre-existing music. Steve felt it to be very important that I should perfect the poetry or lyric (including punctuation) before I wrote a note of music for it. And that’s a promise I keep to this day.

Could you explain for the benefit of the readers what you see as the meaning of the final song in your program that provided the title for this disc? The song, That Star in the Picture, has a really poignant text by Carmel Friedman and, in addition to its meaning and significance, I am curious as to how you approached setting this gem to music.

Thank you for your kind words for this piece, David, which I originally composed for Marni Nixon, and which has a new life and new setting now—I’ve recast this as a cabaret art song. Carmel Friedman wrote a beautiful lyric, a play within a song. I approached this wanting the “Portrait for Soprano with Accompaniment” (its subtitle) to have some bittersweet regret; thus, it is for a woman, on stage, having some regret in her choices, but wanting her man to accept her, or rather, “all three” of her. Is she singing of her husband? Lover? Carmel and I wanted to keep the meaning vague. We’d written this back in 1989 for the celebrated “recorded voice behind the stars” Marni Nixon. More recently, I had been speaking with cabaret artist and friend, KT Sullivan, on how to approach this. KT felt that Shana Farr, another celebrated cabaret performer, especially known for touring with her Julie Andrews Songbook performances, would be ideal. Shana and I talked about some instrumental accompaniment as support. She liked the idea of cello; I felt that adding flute and oboe to the cello and piano would well complement Shana’s beautiful voice and dramatic artistry.

The eight songs featured on the present disc are sung by six different singers. Why so many? Are some or all of them friends for whom you wished to write a song?

Each song should have a different feel, texture, and vocal approach—thus the reason for all these different singers. You’ll note that several artists and instrumentalists are featured on several tracks. Some were friends before this project, and the others are now friends that I hope to be working with on future projects. Baritone Perry Sook was recommended to me through Shana Farr. Perry was a gem to work with! He is comfortable in both concert repertoire (“Hope” is the thing with feathers and Beyond Night) and also the pop and theater world (What About Tomorrow?) At one rehearsal with me, his wife Elizaveta (“Liza”) Ulakhovich, featured artist at the Bolshoi Opera, came by. I understood that Liza had high Cs, and sure enough, she sang one in full fortissimo. I told her that I had to find a project for her and Perry, and a song I had written years ago, my What About Tomorrow? seemed to be the right choice. The New York City Gay Men’s Chorus performed this in my original TTBB, piano, horn, and percussion setting at a gala concert at Carnegie Hall in 1983. So, I worked on this new version, as a duet for soprano and baritone with French horn and piano, for Perry and Liza to sing together.

Victoria (“Miss Vickie”) Livengood, is a longtime friend and a superb artist. As discussed previously, she is featured on the original recording of Memento mori: An AIDS Requiem in 2001. It is an honor and thrill to feature her on this recording. Michael Buchanan was originally going to sing Growing, but when I heard him, I thought he’d be perfect in Beautiful Garden as well as for the darker-hued Dreams. Growing was originally in Mae Richard’s and my rock musical Spirits. We were commissioned by Stan Hurwitz and the Philadelphia Shubert Theatre to work on this revue. Famous director/dancer/choreographer Tommy Tune was going to be the director for our production. I told Tommy about my vision for this song, and that his six-foot-six-inch plus height would be special as he would sing on an oversized high chair. Tommy loved that idea. The show didn’t last, but Mae Richard’s and my music did survive and even flourish. My good friend, Henco Espag, introduced me to tenor Kennedy Kanagawa, capturing hearts in the Broadway show Into the Woods (now on tour) as Milky White. Kennedy has a beautiful boyish and lyrical voice, and he loved the song. I knew that I had to get him involved in this project.

All six of them are clearly seasoned professionals and have the Broadway style in their veins. Did you provide any significant input to them in their rendition of your songs?

As a performer myself, I know the art of letting a live “show” happen. Singers generally ask me how I want this or that sung and performed. I try to help them find their own meaning in the poetry, text, or lyric. Liza asked me if it’d possible to take the ending of What About Tomorrow? down to the G5 so she and her husband Perry could both sing out that G together. It was magic and I happily changed the score. Michael Buchanan has such an original style, a real Broadway-and-theater approach; the lyric had to make sense. We worked through some things together; I adjusted his vocal line, added some instrumental color, to give him the support he needed. With Perry Sook, I gave him my input, but wanted him to find his own stylization (which of course he did). Shana Farr is a well-known cabaret and theater artist. Carmel Friedman’s lyric, as you pointed out, is poignant; Shana brings out the story with beauty and power. I hope we did justice to this.

I note that the tray card mentions these are “live recordings,” but also that they were recorded in a studio, presumably without an audience present. Does that phrase indicate these songs were all recorded and issued without any splicing? Did it require many takes to get one that was to the complete satisfaction of producer, composer, and performers?

That’s a great question, David. During both recording sessions, other musicians were listening in the studio, as well as Yamaha personnel, spouses, and family members. The Yamaha Artist Services Studio, like many New York performance spaces, is not soundproof. Street sounds outside (in particular, the midtown Fifth Avenue traffic) added New York City ambience to the recording, as anyone would hear sitting in a Broadway theater. I listened to the artists’ opinions carefully regarding their preferred tracks during the recording sessions. Their input, along with that of my engineer/producer Joseph Patrych, creative consultant Lonnie Park, and Susan Bush at Albany Records, all helped select the finest takes for this album.

What characteristics do you like to find in a text to inspire you to set it to music?

A lyric, or poem, or text that speaks “straight to the heart.” If it’s not emotionally connective, it’s generally not something I would be able to set. As the late John Green, former head of MGM Studios, once called me “a dedicated tonalist.” I write for singers. I write for audiences. And, I want my music to ennoble, uplift, and entertain.

I note that the text of What About Tomorrow? is your own. Have you written others? Does writing a text pose different challenges for you than composing the music for it?

I started writing lyrics just out of Curtis, finding it fun. But it was also hard! I again return to Steve Sondheim’s advice: Music paints the broad mural, the emotional palate; lyric is the mosaic. He was right. It’s not easy to write a good lyric, moving from points A to B to Z.

Your sense of style and drama as evidenced in these songs is so secure and idiomatic that I’d be confident you have a hit show lurking within you somewhere. Have you actually written an entire production for the musical theater? If not, is this something you would consider?

Yes, I have written entire shows for theater. My first musical, called Reflections (I found out that Zero Mostel was one of its supporters; some day I’ll share my “Z” story with you), was written for mime actor James Griener. James also wrote the lyrics and the book, back in the early 1970s. Spirits, commissioned by the Philadelphia Shubert Theatre during the city’s Bicentennial observances, was the rock musical which Mae Richard and I composed. Then, Dr. Carmel Friedman and I could be seen, according to The Jersey Journal, “cavorting with dinosaurs.” We’d received a grant from the New Jersey Council on the Arts to compose a theater piece for children. The result was Herbie and Carnie: A Dinosaga children’s “pOpera,” which has been published through the Rodgers & Hammerstein Theater division.

As to your question about writing a future musical theater production: YASSZ!