Musical Pointers: "





The collaboration between Urquhart and Slattery began after the composer heard the tenor sing “Maria” from West Side Story in a Paris concert devoted to the music of Leonard Bernstein. Urquhart, who had a close musical relationship with the late composer, felt he was hearing for the first time the voice he had been composing for all along. The culminating CD reflects a unique vision forged by the two artists: the synergy between lyric art songs set against a canvas of solo piano pieces. The songs take their verse from poems by Emily Dickinson, Ron Draddy, Hermann Hesse, D. H. Lawrence, and Walt Whitman. Interspersed between the songs are a selection of solo piano works, which create a bridge of shared melodic themes between groups of vocal pieces. Although Urquhart had written many of the works prior to meeting Slattery, two of the album’s solo piano works –– “Venetian Snowfall” and “Secret Spaces” –– were written specifically for the CD after the artists began working together. 

“It was a joy collaborating with Michael and sharing our ideas, which have resulted in a unique vision of presenting a song recital on disc,” Urquhart explains. “It was Michael’s idea to interweave my songs ‘without words’ and the songs ‘with words,’ creating a unified program that I believe creates a satisfying listening journey.” 

 Musicweb International: 


“Significantly, Craig Urquhart worked as a musical assistant to Leonard Bernstein for a number of years and there is the same sense of approachability to his music. The share the facility to make an original setting of words and richly sinewed music sound deceptively simple… Michael Slattery, has a fine, clear voice, secure throughout the wide range demanded by these pieces, and beautifully modulated. The recital also has the obvious advantage that the composer plays the piano, and his solo pieces, interspersed between the songs, give equal pleasure.” Five stars, BBC Music Magazine 

 "-the songs of Urquhart, with their seamless tonal melodies and rippling 
keyboard accompaniments...the unrelenting beauty of Slattery's lyric tenor voice...heart-melting immediacy...The listener is transported into a state of tranquil contemplation." 

 Five Stars, Classic FM Magazine 
"Love poems both of excitement and disillusionment, anticipation and memory, receive well-judged settings and accomplished performances, and the results make for rewarding listening." 

 Craig Urquhart’s songs have been performed and recorded by Thomas Hampson, Lauren Wagner, and other artists. His last recording, Streamwalker, was honored in the Contemporary Instrumental Top Twenty of 2004 by Michael Debbage of Wind and Wire. Craig’s five previous recordings include: Streamwalker (2004); Evocation (2000); Epitaphs and Portraits (1994); The Dream of the Ancient Ones (1993), and Songs Without Words (1990). Urquhart has also toured throughout the word, and in April he performed to sold-out audiences during a recital tour of Japan. To know more about Craig, please visit craigurquhart.com. 

 Since graduating from Juilliard, Michael Slattery has enjoyed an exciting international career. He has worked with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lincoln Center's Mostly Mozart Festival, the French National Orchestra in Paris, the Akademie für Alte Musik in Berlin, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's at Carnegie Hall. Career highlights include Peter Sellars' Tristan Project at Lincoln Center, the title role in Bernstein's Candide at Royal Festival Hall in London, and Monteverdi's L'Orfeo at the Châtelet Theater in Paris, the Staatsoper in Berlin, and at Glimmerglass. He was recently included in The Spectator's list of tenor "Heroes of the Concert Hall." To know more about Michael, please visit michaelslattery.com. 


Executive Producer Melanne Mueller, Avie Records
 Produced by Craig Urquhart, Michael Slattery Engineer-Scott Petito / 

Piano Technician-Alexander Ostrovsky