Program 719: The 100th Year of Ned Rorem
KALW Broadcast Date: November 6, 2022 | Host: Charles Amirkhanian
Composer Ned Rorem celebrated his 99th birthday in New York City on October 23, 2022. In our first hour, hear this most articulate artist in conversation with Charles Amirkhanian, along with music critic Fleur Paysour, then of the Charlotte Observer, recorded in 1987 at KPFA in Berkeley. Long hailed as the best and most prolific American art song composer, Amirkhanian launches what promises to be a year of Rorem tributes with a survey of early songs in addition to two orchestral pieces—Lions (A Dream), and Eagles, inspired by a Walt Whitman poem.
Rorem’s 1964 Columbia Records LP, featuring 32 of his greatest hits accompanied at the piano by the composer himself, comprises most of the second hour of the broadcast. Still the composer’s own all-time favorite release, it is reissued on Other Minds Records. Soloists include Gianna d’Angelo and Phyllis Curtin, sopranos; Regina Sarfaty, mezzo-soprano; Charles Bressler, tenor; and Donald Gramm, bass.
Program Audio
30-Second Spot
Track Info & Links
![Other Minds Logo Other Minds Logo with white O M in a circle on black background and red diagonal stripe](https://www.otherminds.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/om_faux_logo_v1c_1200px.jpg)
Title: Ode to Gravity: Interview with Ned Rorem
Composer: Ned Rorem
Performers: Charles Amirkhanian, Fleur Paysour, Ned Rorem
![lions American Spectrum](https://www.otherminds.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/lions.jpg)
Title: Lions (A Dream)
Composer: Ned Rorem
Performers: North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, Branford Marsalis Quartet
Grant Llewellyn
Recording Title: American Spectrum
Record Label: BIS Records
Catalogue Number: BISSACD1644
![rorem_cover Songs of Ned Rorem CD cover](https://www.otherminds.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/rorem_cover-scaled.jpg)
Title: The Silver Swan*; What If Some Little Pain***; Youth, Day, Old Age, and Night****; Requiem****; Visits to Saint Elizabeths***; Snake**; Such Beauty As Hurts to Behold***; Spring**; My Papa’s Waltz*****
Composer: Ned Rorem
Performers: Gianna d’Angelo* and Phyllis Curtin**, sopranos; Regina Sarfaty***, mezzo-soprano; Charles Bressler****, tenor; and Donald Gramm*****, bass
Recording Title: Songs of Ned Rorem
Record Label: Other Minds Records
Catalog Number: OM 1009-2
![eagles Ned Rorem Atlanta Symphony Orchestra CD Cover](https://www.otherminds.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/eagles.jpg)
Title: Eagles
Composer: Ned Rorem
Performers: Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Louis Lane conducting
Recording Title: Ned Rorem: Orchestral Works
Record Label: New World Records
Catalog Number: NW80353
![fleisher_rorem fleisher_rorem](https://www.otherminds.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/fleisher_rorem.jpg)
Title: Barcarolle No. 1
Composer: Ned Rorem
Performers: Leon Fleisher, piano
Recording Title: Leon Fleisher: Copland, Kirchner, Sessions, and Rorem
Record Label: Epic Records
Catalog Number: Epic BC 1262