Dove Songs showcases composer David Liptaks poignant music in the title work for soprano and piano, and other pieces for violin and piano, guitar, and cello and piano. Artists on this upcoming album from New Focus Recordings include Tony Arnold, Alison dAmato, Rene Jolles, Margaret Kampmeier, Dieter Hennings Yeomans, Steven Doane, and Barry Snyder. The title track Dove Songs was written for soprano Tony Arnold, whose moving performance with pianist Alison dAmato is heard here. Based on poems by Rita Dove, the 1987 Pulitzer Prize winner in poetry, Liptaks music mirrors the storytelling sensibility of the texts. Other works on the album include The Sighs (Dieter Hennings Yeomans, guitar); Impromptus, written for and performed here by violinist Rene Jolles with pianist Margaret Kampmeier; and Sonata for Cello and Piano, written for cellist Steven Doane, who originally premiered the work in 2008 with pianist Barry Snyder.
David Liptaks music has been described as luminous and arresting, richly atmospheric, and having transparent textures, incisive rhythms, shimmering lightness. His compositions have been performed throughout the United States and abroad by the San Francisco Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Group for Contemporary Music, EARPLAY, the Ying, Cassatt, and JACK String Quartets, the Dinosaur Annex Ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, the 20th-Century Consort, baritone William Sharp, soprano Tony Arnold, and by many other soloists and ensembles.
Album cover photography is by Danish photographer Kim Hltermand, Mons Klimt, a coastal area south of Copenhagen.