Composer Allan Blank has written two song cycles for voice and piano with double bass, both of which are given world premiere recordings on this album. One cycle uses poetry from the Holocaust and the second is based on poetry by Jane Kenyon. Allen Blank is Professor Emeritus at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Many of his more than 300 compositions have been published and recorded. Three of the performers are affiliated with West Virginia University (Catharine Thieme, mezzo-soprano, Robert Thieme, piano, Andrew Kohn, double bass). Soprano Jennifer Miller is an active performer in the Pittsburgh area and pianist Robert Frankenberry is a member of New York’s Phoenix Players.
"... the sentiments expresse by the poetry are beautifully enhanced by the musical settings. Blank writes memorable melodies, and the adition of the double bass makes these lengthy cycles more engrossing..."
David W Moore - American Record Guide - January/February 2013
“Allan Blank has a keen sense of narrative. …he is an important composer in the world of song. …Blank knows how to maximize his material effectively; one of his strengths is not to labor a point, but to have confidence in his imagination and his ability to translate that to the page, and hence to us. …Recommended.”
