Forget This Night Katharine Dain & Sam Armstrong

• Lili Boulanger (1893 - 1918): Attente:
• 1Boulanger: Attente02:42
• Karol Szymanowski (1882 - 1932): Pieśni kurpiowskie, Op. 58:
• 2Szymanowski: Pieśni kurpiowskie, Op. 58: II. Wysła burzycka01:53
• Grażyna Bacewicz (1882 - 1937): Smuga cienia:
• 3Bacewicz: Smuga cienia01:47
• Trzy pieśni do słów arabskich z x wieku:
• 4Bacewicz: Trzy pieśni do słów arabskich z x wieku: I. Mamidło02:42
• Karol Szymanowski: Des Hafis Liebeslieder, Op. 24:
• 5Szymanowski: Des Hafis Liebeslieder, Op. 24: III. Die brennenden Tulpen02:23
• Lili Boulanger: Trois morceaux pour piano:
• 6Boulanger: Trois morceaux pour piano: I. D'un vieux jardin03:21
• Grażyna Bacewicz: Rozstanie:
• 7Bacewicz: Rozstanie01:29
• Karol Szymanowski: Vier Gesänge, Op. 41:
• 8Szymanowski: Vier Gesänge, Op. 41: IV. Das letzte Lied02:19
• Grażyna Bacewicz: Mów do mnie, o miły:
• 9Bacewicz: Mów do mnie, o miły03:44
• Karol Szymanowski: Das Grab des Hafis, Op. posth.:
• 10Szymanowski: Das Grab des Hafis, Op. posth.05:43
• Lili Boulanger: Trois morceaux pour piano:
• 11Boulanger: Trois morceaux pour piano: II. D'un jardin clair01:51
• Clairières dans le ciel:
• 12Boulanger: Clairières dans le ciel: I. Elle était descendue au bas de la prairie01:48
• 13Boulanger: Clairières dans le ciel: II. Elle est gravement gaie01:43
• 14Boulanger: Clairières dans le ciel: III. Parfois, je suis triste03:18
• 15Boulanger: Clairières dans le ciel: IV. Un poète disait01:42
• 16Boulanger: Clairières dans le ciel: V. Au pied de mon lit02:18
• 17Boulanger: Clairières dans le ciel: VI. Si tout ceci n'est qu'un pauvre rêve02:30
• 18Boulanger: Clairières dans le ciel: VII. Nous nous aimerons tant03:09
• 19Boulanger: Clairières dans le ciel: VIII. Vous m'avez regardé avec toute votre âme01:56
• 20Boulanger: Clairières dans le ciel: IX. Les lilas qui avaient fleuri02:54
• 21Boulanger: Clairières dans le ciel: X. Deux ancolies01:44
• 22Boulanger: Clairières dans le ciel: XI. Parce que j'ai souffert03:21
• 23Boulanger: Clairières dans le ciel: XII. Je garde une médaille d'elle01:36
• 24Boulanger: Clairières dans le ciel: XIII. Demain fera un an08:07
• Karol Szymanowski: Trzy kołysanki, Op. 48:
• 25Szymanowski: Trzy kołysanki, Op. 48: I. Pochyl się cicho nad kołyską01:41
• Lili Boulanger : "J'ai des fréponds…" (Sketchbook fragment, BN Ms 19469):
• 26Boulanger: "J'ai des fréponds…" (Sketchbook fragment, BN Ms 19469)01:47
• Total Runtime01:09:28

Info for Forget This Night

Forget This Night explores impermanence and desire through songs by Lili Boulanger, Karol Szymanowski, and Grażyna Bacewicz. The heart of the program is Clairières dans le ciel, Lili Boulanger’s only song cycle and an overlooked masterpiece of the genre, which maps the interior emotional landscape of someone deeply in love—from blissful awe to the devastation of abandonment. The cycle is framed by songs of Szymanowski (a contemporary of Boulanger, who across the continent and against the backdrop of the First World War was also writing music of simmering passion) and Bacewicz, of a generation later, who treats the same themes in songs of fresh directness and aching lyricism.

Opening with Boulanger’s first extant song, Attente, and ending with the premiere recording of a fragment for solo voice she wrote at the very end of her life, Forget This Night poses a universal human question: how wholeheartedly can we open ourselves to relationships, and moments, that will inevitably end?

Katharine Dain, soprano
Sam Armstrong, piano

Katharine Dain
American-Dutch soprano Katharine Dain is a musician of insatiable curiosity and unusual imagination, active in opera, orchestral repertoire, oratorio, and chamber music in Europe and North America. After taking the top prize in the 2017 Clermont-Ferrand Competition with a performance called a “revelation” by Diapason, Dain debuted as Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the opera houses of Clermont-Ferrand, Avignon, Rouen, Massy, and Reims. Highlights of recent seasons include Mozart’s Donna Anna with the Orchestra of the 18th Century under Kenneth Montgomery (Netherlands and Belgium) and at the Armel Opera Festival (Hungary and Ecuador), orchestral song cycles of Dutilleux and Berlioz with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ryan Bancroft (Glasgow), a tour of Wagner’s “Liebestod” and a commissioned work by Rick van Veldhuizen with the Nederlands Studenten Orkest under Manoj Kamps, and songs of Berg and Zemlinsky with Het Collectief under Reinbert de Leeuw at Austria’s Osterfestival.

Dain debuted with the Dutch National Opera in Claude Vivier’s Kopernikus, a co-production of its Talent Development Programme and the experimental company Silbersee, and has reprised the role in New York and Buenos Aires. A noted interpreter of contemporary scores, she has recently performed Andriessen, Gubaidulina, Saariaho, Adams, Reich, Carter, and Stockhausen (among others) with ensembles including Asko|Schönberg, LUDWIG, the New European Ensemble, the Antwerp Symphony, and Oerknal. She has become known for jump-ins on unusual repertoire: Luigi Nono’s Il Canto Sospeso at the Holland Festival under Ingo Metzmacher (and later at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna under Roberto Abbado), a Concertgebouw recital of Marx, Korngold and Strauss songs called “a miracle” by Place de l’Opera, appearances at the West Cork and Aldeburgh Festivals, and the world premiere of Jan van de Putte’s Insonia with Asko|Schönberg and Cappella Amsterdam—a performance that was broadcast live from the Concertgebouw’s Zaterdagmatinee series and later released commercially on Etcetera Records.

Dain also has a lengthy CV in oratorio and orchestral repertoire. Some highlights include Matthäus-Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music and the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge; Messiah in Carnegie Hall; Carmina Burana in the Concertgebouw; and Stravinsky Les Noces with the New York City Ballet. In the 2019-20 season, Dain revisited Messiah with the Nieuw Philharmonie Utrecht under Johannes Leertouwer, performed the Bach solo cantata “Jauchzet, Gott” in London and New York, and sang Brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem throughout the Netherlands and Dvorak Stabat Mater in Prague.

A passionate promoter of chamber music and recital repertoire, she has co-founded several ensembles, including Damask Vocal Quartet, whose 2018 debut album of Brahms and his contemporaries on 7 Mountain Records, “O schöne Nacht,” won France’s prestigious Choc de Classica award and universal acclaim in the press. She has also performed with the Quiroga, Ragazze, Navarra, Van Brugh, Carducci, Callino, and Momenta string quartets; she often curates programs of chamber music and song and is a repeat guest at Ireland’s West Cork Chamber Music Festival.

Educated at Harvard University, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and Mannes College of Music, Katharine currently lives in Rotterdam.

This album contains no booklet.