Boston Globe, January 13, 2016 — “Collage New Music presented a deliberately crafted collage program on Sunday at the Longy School of Music of Bard College. With music director David Hoose conducting, the ensemble brought to the stage various musical colors, textures, and forms from living composers familiar and new. …
The oldest selection was Yehudi Wyner’s song cycle ‘The Second Madrigal: Voices of Women’ (1999). It was written for the nimble-voiced soprano Dominique Labelle, who was front and center for this performance. Soloist, instrumentalists, and conductor sailed through the score on a unified wavelength. Labelle paid especially exquisite attention to the texts, which Wyner selected from the international poetry anthology ‘A Book of Luminous Things.’ Except for the final text, the shattering ‘Question’ by May Swenson, all concerned feminine primping — younger women flirting with the mirror, older women cursing their wrinkles — or erotic experiences with a male lover. Both anthologist and composer are male, and considering that alongside the piece’s title raises a question: Who is really telling these women’s stories, and what kind of woman’s voice is amplified by men?”
The oldest selection was Yehudi Wyner’s song cycle ‘The Second Madrigal: Voices of Women’ (1999). It was written for the nimble-voiced soprano Dominique Labelle, who was front and center for this performance. Soloist, instrumentalists, and conductor sailed through the score on a unified wavelength. Labelle paid especially exquisite attention to the texts, which Wyner selected from the international poetry anthology ‘A Book of Luminous Things.’ Except for the final text, the shattering ‘Question’ by May Swenson, all concerned feminine primping — younger women flirting with the mirror, older women cursing their wrinkles — or erotic experiences with a male lover. Both anthologist and composer are male, and considering that alongside the piece’s title raises a question: Who is really telling these women’s stories, and what kind of woman’s voice is amplified by men?”
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