| Existing comment:
Of the eleven new commissions premiered at the Fourteenth Festival of Chamber Music in 1970, it was George Crumb's (b. 1929) Ancient Voices of Children that brought the audience to its feet. Crumb's musical imagery perfectly evoked the haunting poetry of Federico García Lorca (1898–1936) in a cycle of songs lamenting a lost child. The Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, led by founder-director Arthur Weisberg (1931–2009), and vocal soloists mezzo-soprano Jan DeGaetani (1933–1989) and boy soprano Michael Dash (1958–1995), held listeners spellbound. DeGaetani's mastery of extended vocal technique gave her command of the most fiendishly difficult contemporary music, and Crumb wrote the work with her in mind. At the premiere's conclusion the audience rose collectively and began to cheer. The New York Times critic called the piece "a full-blown masterpiece." |