Summer's Distillation

With SUMMER'S DISTILLATION, Joseph Summer, as composer, offers a new look at the timeless texts credited to William Shakespeare. As artistic director, Summer presents settings by Brahms, R. Schumann, and Benjamin Pesetsky, curating an overall impressive collection of works for voice, harp, and horns. Sonnets V and VI for voice, horns, and harp is raw and unfiltered-in a complex tonal language which illuminates stark text is the foreground. Sonnet CIV is an art song for mezzo soprano wherein the harp accompaniment plays the role of a lute or acoustic guitar. It is simultaneously heavy and graceful. Sonnet XCI for voice and horns, on the other hand, is regal and declamatory. Sonnet LXXIII for vocal ensemble, harp, and horns paints a dark forest scene-a cacophony of textures as soloists take turns, yet no voice or instrument is background. Finally, Sonnet CXXXIII, a duet for tenor and soprano against the scene painting of harp and horns, is a complaint about the interminably long delay between Summer's proclamation of adoration for his (eventual) wife, Lisa Summer, and her prorogued agreement to accept his offer of love. If by Your Art from The Tempest is a through-composed soprano aria with atmospheric harp accompaniment. The harp's