Journal of Singing, September/October 2003, Vol. 60 No. 1, pp 115-119.

The Listener’s Gallery written by Gregory Berg

Ah Love but a Day: Songs and Spirituals of American Women. Louise Toppin, soprano; Jay A Pierson, baritone; John O’Brien, piano. Albany Troy 385)

This release is compelling in concept and execution. Twelve women composers are represented in twenty-eight songs, many of which seem not to have been recorded before.  An agreeable mix of moods and styles is evident and the performances are assured and expressive.  The program notes present helpful information on the composers and their songs, and technical matters are for the most part nicely handled.  In an increasingly crowded field of contenders, this recording ranks among the better collections of songs by women composers.

If Dr. Brown’s glowing words of praise for the recording in liner notes are mildly irritating in this context, they are also unerringly accurate.  Louise Toppin unfurls a captivating voice that boasts a perfect blend of brilliance and warmth and a seamless-ness across the registers, indicating a strong technique at work.  Her stage repertoire includes such high-flying roles as Mozart’s Queen of the Night, and there are several opportunities here for her to unleash her stratospheric top voice.  Mostly, though, we’re treated to the beauty of her deep-hued lower and middle registers and to her uncomplicated clarity in expressing text.  Jay A. Pierson’s baritone is exceptionally attractive and spun very sensitively, and he equals and even surpasses his colleague in terms of diction, although that may be more a matter of tessitura.  One occasional cause for concern is the tendency for his vibrato to become intrusive, particularly in songs like “Canaan” and “Ol’ Jim” where a simpler, clearer tone would be preferable.  Most of the time, however, the vibrato remains in check and actually enhances his work in the more romantically styled songs like Clara Edwards’s well-known “Into the Night.”  Completing this talented trio is pianist John O’Brien, whose impassioned playing provides the sort of sturdy backdrop that these songs require.

As for the repertoire, it is an entertaining and entirely accessible array of songs.  The two songs of Gwyneth Walker, from her song cycle Though Love be a Day, are remarkable and leave one hungry to hear more from this gifted and unjustly neglected composer.  “Maggie and Millie and Molly and May” is a delightful setting of words by e.e. cummings and features an effective mix of song and speech.  “Still” is a setting of a poem by the composer and Ms. Toppin’s ability to make these words crystal clear in such a lyrical, long-lined piece is quite impressive.  This piece is also a lovely showpiece for Mr. O’Brien’s gossamer ease at the keyboard.  Libby Larsen’s Three Cowboy Songs are similarly interesting works that demonstrate the composer’s plain spoken sense of fun and energy as well as her uncanny ability to fashion angular, intricate melodies that nonetheless, are very singable.

Ms. Toppin saves some of her best singing for Margaret Bonds’s Songs of  the Seasons, which weds the words of Langston Hughes to musical settings that reflect the landscapes of jazz and blues.  An earlier African American composer, Florence Price, is represented by three unapologetically romantic songs that are lush and lovely and evidence a major talent that has yet to be fully appreciated.  The title track song, Amy Beach’s “Ah Love but a Day,” sounds more old fashioned and predictable, but one appreciates the opportunity to hear these two well matched singers collaborate on the only duet on the disk.  The two weakest original songs in this collection are still interesting inclusions because they are the works o Margaret Ruthven Lang, whom the liner notes identify as the first woman composer in the U. S. to have a lengthy work played by an important orchestra.  It is a treat to encounter this all-but-forgotten figure from our musical past, even in songs that are thoroughly pedestrian.  Most of the rest of the collection is devoted to spirituals, and their presence seems a bit out of proportion to the more substantive original songs.  On the other hand, when the arrangements are this refreshing and sung so winningly, one can hardly begrudge their presence on this disk.  Undine Moore’s sparkling arrangement of “Come down Angels” works divinely when sung by someone as poised and musical as Ms. Toppin.  And one could scarcely ask for a more perfect closing track to this collection than Betty Jackson King’s setting of “Ride up in the Chariot,” which is simply stunning.

The written introduction by the two singers calls attention to the “unsung heroines” whose music is collected here.  We may be grateful to live in an era in which so much music written by women composers finally is celebrated and given a proper public hearing.  The singers express the hope that this recording might be “a catalyst for other musicians to discover and to program the songs and duets of American women.”  It should certainly be that, on the strength of the songs gathered into this collection and the superb performances that bring them thrillingly to life.