Lamenting Earth Nicholas Phan, Jasper String Quartet & Myra Huang

• Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828): Wandrers Nachtlied D. 768:
• 1 Schubert: Wandrers Nachtlied D. 768 02:20
• Am See D. 746:
• 2 Schubert: Am See D. 746 02:11
• Auf dem Wasser zu singen D. 774:
• 3 Schubert: Auf dem Wasser zu singen D. 774 04:05
• Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872 - 1958): On Wenlock Edge:
• 4 Williams: On Wenlock Edge: No. 1. On Wenlock Edge 03:54
• 5 Williams: On Wenlock Edge: No. 2. From far, from eve and morning 01:58
• 6 Williams: On Wenlock Edge: No. 3. Is my team ploughing? 03:41
• 7 Williams: On Wenlock Edge: No. 4. Oh, when I was in love with you 00:48
• 8 Williams: On Wenlock Edge: No. 5. Bredon Hill 07:18
• 9 Williams: On Wenlock Edge: No. 6. Clun 03:27
• Charles Ives (1874 - 1954): The Housatonic at Stockbridge:
• 10 Ives: The Housatonic at Stockbridge 04:25
• Patrick Castillo (b. 1979): Skyline Palimpsest:
• 11 Castillo: Skyline Palimpsest 10:17
• Vivian Fung (b. 1975): Lamenting Earth:
• 12 Fung: Lamenting Earth: 1. November Blooming 02:55
• 13 Fung: Lamenting Earth: 2. Lament 03:50
• 14 Fung: Lamenting Earth: 3. O 07:45
• 15 Fung: Lamenting Earth: 4. Vast, Green 03:31
• Total Runtime 01:02:25

Info zu Lamenting Earth

„Lamenting Earth“, das neueste Album des GRAMMY®-prämierten Tenors Nicholas Phan, in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Jasper Quartet und seiner langjährigen Partnerin, der Pianistin Myra Huang, erkundet die Beziehung des Menschen zur Natur, wie sie sich in den Werken von Komponisten des 19., 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts ausdrückt.

Franz Schuberts Lieder beschwören Bilder von Wasser, Stille und Einsamkeit als Spiegel menschlicher Emotionen herauf. Vaughan Williams’ „On Wenlock Edge“, inspiriert von der Lyrik A. E. Housmans, verortet den Einzelnen in den gewaltigen Zyklen von Zeit und Landschaft – Hügeln, Wind und Erde –, die über menschliche Freude und Trauer hinaus fortbestehen. In Ives’ „Housatonic at Stockbridge“ verschmelzen Erinnerungen, Hymnen und der Fluss zu einer schimmernden Meditation über Transzendenz, in der die Natur zur spirituellen Schwelle und nicht nur zur Kulisse wird.

Zu den Beiträgen des 21. Jahrhunderts zählt Patrick Castillos „Skyline Palimpsest“, eine Hommage an New York City, seine einstige Heimatstadt, die darüber reflektiert, wie die Einflüsse der Natur die Zukunft der Metropole prägen könnten. Der Titeltrack der in Kanada geborenen Komponistin Vivian Fung verbindet das Gedicht „O“ der amerikanischen Schriftstellerin Claire Wahmanholm – das als Klage, Elegie und flammender Appell zum Handeln beschrieben wurde – mit den dringenden schriftlichen Reaktionen der Generation Z auf den Klimawandel.

Nicholas Phans warmer, gefühlvoller Ton und seine Leidenschaft für Vokalkammermusik verleihen dem Repertoire, das ein gemeinsames zentrales Thema aufweist, eine lebendige Schönheit.

Nicholas Phan, Tenor
Myra Huang, Klavier (Titel 1–10, 12–15)
Jasper Streichquartett: (Titel 4–9, 11–15)
Freivogel, Violine
Karen Kim, Violine
Andrew Gonzalez, Viola
Rachel Henderson Freivogel, Cello

Nicholas Phan
Described by the Boston Globe as “one of the world’s most remarkable singers,” American tenor Nicholas Phan is increasingly recognized as an artist of distinction. An artist with an incredibly diverse repertoire that spans nearly 500 years of music, he performs regularly with the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies. Also an avid recitalist, in 2010 he co-founded the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (CAIC) to promote art song and vocal chamber music, where he serves as artistic director.

Phan begins the 2024-25 season curating and performing in CAIC’s 13th annual Collaborative Works Festival. This year’s festival theme, Song of the Bard, examines William Shakespeare’s influence on the world of song. Following CAIC’s festival performances, Phan joins pianist and composer Jake Heggie in recital for San Francisco Performances’ 45th anniversary season gala and opens Bach Collegium San Diego’s season with a program of cantatas and arias by Johann Sebastian Bach, Dietrich Buxtehude, and Christoph Graupner. Later in the season, Phan performs the world premieres of two new works by composer Viet Cuong: A Moment’s Oblivion, a cantata based on a Confucian myth, with Cleveland-based ensemble Les Délices; and a new song cycle with the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra that relates the telling of Cuong’s family’s escape from Saigon.

Other highlights of Phan’s 2024-25 season include his debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Portugal for performances of Haydn’s Creation with Hannu Lintu, and a tour of Britten’s Les Illuminations with the East Coast Chamber Orchestra with stops at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and Portland Chamber Music Festival. Phan performs recitals at the Chamber Music Society of Palm Beach, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, and the inaugural Cascade Song Festival at the University of Oregon. He performs the Evangelist in Bach’s St. John Passion with Houston’s Mercury Chamber Orchestra and also makes returns to the Hong Kong Philharmonic for Mozart’s orchestration of Handel’s Messiah, Handel & Haydn Society in Boston, Pacific Symphony, and the Seattle Symphony for more Creation performances with David Robertson.

Jasper String Quartet
Celebrated as one of the preeminent American string quartets of the twenty-first century, the prizewinning Jasper String Quartet is hailed as being “flawless in ensemble and intonation, expressively assured and beautifully balanced” (Gramophone). The Quartet is highly regarded for its “programming savvy” (ClevelandClassical.com), which strives to evocatively connect the music of underrepresented and living composers to the canonical repertoire through thoughtful programs that appeal to a wide variety of audiences.

A recipient of Chamber Music America’s prestigious Cleveland Quartet Award (2012), the Quartet’s playing has been described as “sonically delightful and expressively compelling” (The Strad). The ensemble has released eight albums, including its most recent release, Insects and Machines: Quartets of Vivian Fung, named CMA’s 2025 Album of the Year. Strings Magazine praised the Quartet on the album as “intensely dramatic throughout demonstrating both their advocacy of new music and their transcendent mastery.” The Quartet’s 2017 release, Unbound, was named by The New York Times as one of the year’s 25 Best Classical Recordings.

The Quartet regularly collaborates with some of today’s leading artists, including tenor Nicholas Phan, clarinetist Derek Bermel, pianists Amy Yang, Natalie Zhu and Myra Huang, and the Jupiter String Quartet. Collaborations and commissions with living composers include Lera Auerbach, Derek Bermel, Patrick Castillo, Vivian Fung, Brittany J. Green, Aaron Jay Kernis, Akira Nishimura, Reinaldo Moya, Michelle Ross, Caroline Shaw and Joan Tower.

“flawless in ensemble and intonation, expressively assured and beautifully balanced.” — Gramophone

The Quartet will release new recordings in 2026, including Lamenting Earth with tenor Nicholas Phan and pianist Myra Huang, Reinaldo Moya’s Pájaros Garabatos with soprano Maria Brea, and an album of chamber works by Richard Festinger. In celebration of its Twentieth Anniversary in 2026-27, the Quartet has commissioned new works from composers Patrick Castillo, Brittany J. Green, Reinaldo Moya and Michelle Ross.

The Jasper String Quartet is passionate about connecting with audiences beyond the concert hall and has performed hundreds of outreach programs in schools and community centers across the US. The Quartet is the Professional Quartet-in-Residence at Temple University’s Center for Gifted Young Musicians and is also Director of the annual Saint Paul Chamber Music Institute. In addition, the Quartet is regularly invited to conduct short-term residencies at colleges and universities, and in partnership with presenters. Past residencies include those at Trinity

New York State, now in its fourteenth year. Generously supported by the Howland Chamber Music Circle, the Quartet performs and works with the school’s orchestras and chamber music ensembles twice yearly.

Formed at Oberlin Conservatory, the Jasper String Quartet launched their professional career in 2006 while studying with James Dunham, Norman Fischer, and Kenneth Goldsmith as Graduate Quartet-in-Residence at Rice University. In 2008, the Quartet continued its training with the Tokyo String Quartet as Yale University’s Graduate Quartet-in-Residence. That same year, the Quartet swept through the competition circuit, winning the Grand Prize and the Audience Prize in the Plowman Chamber Music Competition, the Grand Prize at the Coleman Competition, First Prize at Chamber Music Yellow Springs, and the Silver Medal at the 2008 and 2009 Fischoff Chamber Music Competitions. They were the first ensemble honored with Yale School of Music’s Horatio Parker Memorial Prize, an award established in 1945, and selected by the faculty for “best fulfilling…lofty musical ideals.” In 2010, they joined the roster of Astral Artists after winning their national auditions.

Booklet für Lamenting Earth