FULL HERMIT SONGS (Barber) Ridgewood NJ 2015 Matthew Polenzani

• Work Title: Hermit Songs  
• Composer: Barber Samuel  
• Libretto: anonymous poems written by Irish monks and scholars from the 8th to the 13th centuries, in translations by W. H. Auden, Chester Kallman, Howard Mumford Jones, Kenneth H. Jackson and Seán Ó Faoláin  
• Venue & Opera Company: Parlance Chamber Concerts, Ridgewood, New Jersey  
• Recorded: March 29, 2015
• Type: Concert Live
• Singers: Matthew Polenzani
• Conductor:   
• Orchestra: Ken Noda, Piano  
• Stage Director:   
• Costume Designer:   

Information about the Recording

• Published by: Michael Parloff  
• Date Published: 2020  
• Format: Streaming
• Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
• Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs  
• Video Recording from: YouTube     FULL VIDEO
•  

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE

At Saint Patrick’s Purgatory 00:00
Church Bell at Night: Sweet Little Bell 01:29
St. Ita’s Vision 02:20
The Heavenly Banquet 05:31
The Crucifixion (from “The Speckled Book”) 06:45
Sea-Snatch 09:20
Promiscuity 09:58
The Monk and His Cat: Pangur, White Pangur 10:55
The Praises of God: How Foolish the Man 13:13
The Desire for Hermitage 14:10

Hermit Songs is a cycle of ten songs for voice and piano by Samuel Barber. Written in 1953 on a grant from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation, it takes as its basis a collection of anonymous poems written by Irish monks and scholars from the 8th to the 13th centuries, in translations by W. H. Auden, Chester Kallman, Howard Mumford Jones, Kenneth H. Jackson and Seán Ó Faoláin. The Hermit Songs received their premiere in 1953 at the Library of Congress, with soprano Leontyne Price and Barber himself as pianist