“THE LADY REMEMBERS (THE STATUE OF LIBERTY...

“THE LADY REMEMBERS (THE STATUE OF LIBERTY SUITE).” Julia Migenes Johnson, soprano; Detroit Symphony conducted by Gunther Herbig. RCA Red Seal HRC1-9545 (digital). Former Broadway tunesmith Richard Adler gives us his tired, his hackneyed in this seven-part suite composed to celebrate the 99th birthday of the Statue of Liberty. It might have been the 39th, judging from the cliches of the pictorial writing (two parts inspirational Coplandesque Americana to one part Broadway dance interlude to a dash of “Zarathustra”). Migenes Johnson contributes a suitably stirring reading of all the states in the union, Herbig and the Detroiters render it all with suitable fervor. But formula in the name of patriotism is no excuse.