During her distinguished career, Carole Bogard specialised in singing two quite different types of music. On her previous Parnassus release (“Carole Bogard Sings Baroque Cantatas and Arias” PACD96020), we resurrected some of her best Baroque performances. Here, Parnassus is pleased to present a superb collection of American songs, half of them previously unpublished, and in two cases accompanied by the composers.

“Carole Bogard: A Collection of American Songs” includes major song cycles of John Alden Carpenter, Aaron Copland, and Ned Rorem, all accompanied by the distinguished pianist and conductor John Moriarty. Groups of songs by John Duke and Richard Cumming feature the composers as pianists. In a group of songs by the late William Flanagan, the pianist is the famous composer David Del Tredici, here making a rare appearance as a performer.

This set, one of the most extensive collections of American art song on CD, presents many otherwise-unavailable songs (only those of Copland can be considered “standard repertory”). They are sung by one of the most distinguished interpreters this literature has ever had. Ned Rorem considers her, as quoted in the booklet, one of the “three American singers of importance to the agonizing art song.”

The songs by Flanagan, Duke, and Cumming were previously released on now-scarce LPs by the Desto and Cambridge labels. The songs of Carpenter, Copland, and Rorem, from European broadcasts, are all previously unpublished.

The accompanying booklet includes extensive programme notes and complete texts of all the songs.