Songs of War: Was My Brother in the Battle? Stephen Swanson, baritone

I've just heard an extraordinary song recital on Albany Records, titled "Was My Brother in the Battle? Songs of War," performed by baritone Stephen Swanson and pianist David Gompper.  Swanson recounts in the enclosed booklet that he was motivated to put this recital together when his son enlisted in the Air Force.  "This recital grew out of my frustration and anger with the build up to and coverage of Operation Iraqi Freedom," writes Swanson, who found media coverage of the war to be "jingoistic and trite."  Since he is based at the University of Iowa, one is not surprised with this criticism, assuming he is reading the local press and watching the pathetic mainstream media.  (Assuming media embraces all media, I think coverage of the war in "The Nation" has been anything but jingoistic and trite, and I encourage Mr. Swanson to start reading it now...)

At any event, the recital is truly inspired.  Swanson and Gompper have been performing it since 2004, and finally had an opportunity to record it for Albany, which released it recently.  I was quickly drawn to it by its inclusion of the three songs Charles Ives wrote in connection with World War I, and for an opportunity to hear fresh new performances in good sound (by a singer with a real voice) of Tom Lehrer's great "So Long, Mom, I'm Off to Drop the Bomb" and "The Wild West is Where I Want to Be."  But the whole recital works wonderfully well, the sequence of songs is great, the mix of genres (Steven Foster, Ives, Lehrer, Flanders & Swann, and various modern composers writing about Vietnam) is provocative and stimulating, and the performances are heartfelt.  Mr. Swanson has an excellent baritone voice and he knows how to use it, and Gomppers plays the accompaniments with great spirit.  Gompper is also responsible for arranging piano accompaniments for some of the songs drawn from contemporary material that was not originally conceived for the art song recital format, and for a musical setting of a touching letter that Abraham Lincoln sent to the mother of five young men slaughtered fighting for the Union in the Civil War.  Despite the destruction, death and tragedy described in some of these songs, the recital as a whole is not a downer, but rather a call to empathy and concern for the waste of war and the impact that participating in war has on the common military personnel, which is the focus of many of these songs.

Albany Records is a very valuable independent label that just seems to spew out an endless supply of recordings of contemporary American music.  It does a valuable service making these kinds of productions available, and doesn't get all the attention it deserves.  While it may be that there is an occasional "vanity" project mixed among the professional efforts, this recording strikes me as fully professional and worthy to stand with the best.  I checked out Mr. Swanson's website and saw that he and Mr. Gomppers are continuing to take this program on the road in 2009.  Too bad NYC is not on the list, as I would love to hear it in concert.