Jamie Barton’s solo album is devoted to Heggie’s art songs and it’s a tribute to his output that he sustains the interest for over an hour with a variety that stands in comparison with, say, Poulenc in the 20th century.
“Unexpected Shadows,” performed by Jamie Barton, Jake Heggie, and Matt Haimovitz, is The Sunday Times’ Recording of The Week! Read the full review below!
Heggie is a prolific writer of lightly feminist songs, many of them written for the leading American singers of our age. Jamie Barton’s solo album is devoted to Heggie’s art songs and it’s a tribute to his output that he sustains the interest for over an hour with a variety that stands comparison with, say, Poulenc in the 20th century, lavishing sumptuous tone on the cycle written for Barton, The Work at Hand. Haimovitz plays the introductory solo superbly. Other works benefit from Barton’s relish of bluesy and cabaret-like idioms, and witty declamation of Gene Scheer’s sly words in First Ladies at the Smithsonian (Eleanor Roosevelt, Mary Todd Lincoln, Jackie Onassis Kennedy, Barbara Bush). This saves the best till last with Scheer’s Statuesque: delivered with whimsy and razzmatazz as Barton snarls at the end of Winged Victory: “We’re through. Get out!”
Hugh Canning
