Finds From a Pre-Digital Age Unearthed

Ned Rorem is most famous for his frank diaries and for his art songs. But while the diaries have long been combed for dish, the songs have mainly been famous for being famous. Though praised for decades for their direct sentiment and sophisticated poetry, they’ve fought fashion. But wait long enough and everything changes.

Tuneful, old-fashioned songs are back in American music, and a new generation of noted singers has come along to sing them. Now it is getting hard to find Rorem’s books and easier to find CDs of his songs. And there is no better place to start than “More Than a Day,” a recent cycle setting the poetic love letters by Los Angeles poet Jack Larson to his life companion, the late producer James Bridges. Combine Rorem’s music with Asawa’s exciting, piquant voice and bright playing from the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (brilliantly recorded in the Zipper Concert Hall), and exuberant poetry explodes in celebratory lyricism. Nor does the lyricism stop there, since the CD also includes “Water Music,” a lively set of variations for solo violin, clarinet and orchestra, and the attractive song cycle “From an Unknown Past.”

Graham’s selection of 32 Rorem songs is a useful companion disc, giving further example of Rorem’s expressive range. But admirable as it is to have an eager opera star focusing on an American master, Graham does not leave the opera stage far enough behind. A good test for a singer of these songs is whether you can understand the words without following the text. Graham doesn’t pass. Asawa does.