Emily Jaworski Koriath & Ted Koriath: These Distances Between Us
Naxos Classical

One thing in particular jumps out from the recording details listed on the backside of this contemporary art song collection by mezzo-soprano Emily Jaworski Koriath and pianist Tad Koriath, namely that arrangements for two of the five works include computer-generated electronics. That might set some listeners on edge, anticipating as they might the intrusion of abrasive electronic textures into an otherwise conventional vocal recital. They needn't worry: the timbres Craig Brandwein and Jonathan Santore fashioned for their respective pieces, Three Rilke Songs and Two Letters of Sulpicia, are synthetic textures that enhance the singing and expand arrestingly on the voice-and-piano arrangements of the other works. If anything, the combination of acoustic and electronic elements is one of the things that recommends the project most.

The subject matter dealt with by American composers Brandwein (b. 1959), Santore (b. 1963), Edie Hill (b. 1962), and Jessica Rudman (b. 1982) is diverse, naturally, yet each also explores human connection and longing, be it physical, emotional, or spiritual. Such a thematic focus dovetails with the personal experience of Emily and Tad, who met at a national conference in 2017, developed a long-distance love story thereafter, and married in 2020 whilst still wrestling with how to come together with her in Birmingham and him in Colorado (of course the sense of isolation wrought by the pandemic naturally aligns with those themes also). Emily is Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and also enjoys a thriving performing career as a professional soloist. Tad has been active in the Colorado region since 1999 and is a regular accompanist for choirs and organizations throughout Denver and Boulder.

All of the composers bring to the project impressive credentials. Like Emily, Brandwein is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, his area of specialization music technology. Santore teaches composition and theory at Plymouth State University, where he was honoured with the Award for Distinguished Scholarship for his compositional work. A New York native now based in Minneapolis, Hill is a three-time McKnight Artist Fellow and a two-time Bush Artist Fellow. Rudman's vibrant works have been performed by groups such as ICE (International Contemporary Ensemble), Cadillac Moon Ensemble, and the Hartford Independent Chamber Orchestra. The texts the composers selected for their pieces are as diverse, with lyrics coming from Suplicia I (born ca. 40 BCE), Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), Amy Lowell (1874-1925), John Charles McNeill (1874–1907), and Aiden K. Feltkamp (b. 1988).

These Distances Between Us begins with Hill's resplendent The Giver of Stars: Six Poems of Amy Lowell (2012), one focus of its texts the relationship the early twentieth-century poet had with actress Ada Dwyer Russell. A theatrical flourish by Tad introduces the opening “Pyrotechnics,” after which Emily's vibrato-rich voice delivers words that might have been written to describe the Koriaths' own story: “Our meeting was like the upward swish of a rocket / In the blue night.” Overt expressions of yearning emerge in “Vernal Equinox” (“Why are you not here to overpower me with your tense and urgent love?”) and in the cycle-closing “A Sprig of Rosemary” (“But my heart holds the sound of your voice / And the soft brightness which is your soul”). Santore's Two Letters of Sulpicia captivates for the electronic sound design he created as a backdrop for Emily's voice. In these short settings, organ-like timbres and percussive accents commingle as she exults about love's arrival and physical consummation (“I try to act cool, solemn – but I grin / Remembering the glory of our sin”).

Of the texts in Rudman's These Distances Between Us (2018), Feltkamp writes, “These poems explore how loss and love intertwine, and how physical and emotional distances can affect us.” Consistent with that, “The Ward” and “The Flight” contend with the challenges of long-distance relationships (“How many ways must we say / Goodbye / on the yellow-lined, mine-pocked / subway platforms”) in a way that naturally resonates with the Koriaths and anyone dealing with similar situations. In the album's darkest episode, the maximum distance imaginable is considered in “The Brick Café” in confronting the crushing moments after another's death (“I put my ear to your sternum / and heard the howling air of your cavity”).

Of his Four Songs of John Charles McNeill (2016–17), Brandwein states, “The rhythms of his poems inspired the melodies which were derived from my Eastern European influences,” and certainly one hears traces of that in the material he composed for the cycle. One is held captive by the poignant lyricism of “A Prayer,” the entrancing lilt of “At Sea,” and the haunting, lullaby-like sway of “A Secret.” His Three Rilke Songs (2018) grew out of a collaboration between Emily and Brandwein when she chose three of her favourite Rilke texts (from The Book of Hours and Letters to a Young Poet) that he then set to music using a variety of programmed synthesizers. While her voice and the electronic timbres blend marvelously in “If only for once,” the ominous, atmospheric result as suggestive of prog as classical art song, silken synthesizer textures effectively amplify the celestial uplift of “God speaks to us.”

January 2023