MOUNTAIN INTERVAL: SONGS AND CHAMBER MUSIC OF RUSSELL PLATT
BRIDGE 9575

A group of distinguished American artists well-versed in contemporary classical music—including Paul Appleby, Molly Barth, and the Borromeo String Quartet—offer superlative performances of works from four decades by Russell Platt, a composer and writer who has reinterpreted the heritage of Romantic, modern, and minimalist music as his own. A student of Ned Rorem and Dominick Argento who also enjoyed a substantial career as a music editor and critic at The New Yorker, Platt has long been admired for his art songs, which showcase not only his love for the English language but also an impressive gift for melody and a craftsman’s regard for form. The album, which begins with an epic setting of Robert Frost’s classic poem “After Apple-Picking” (as well as settings of texts by Paul Muldoon and Elizabeth Bishop), closes with “Mountain Interval,” a seven-movement string quartet which pays tribute to late Beethoven as well as to Frost’s poetic legacy.

BRIDGE 9575