This one took me completely unawares. Until now the name Gerald Ginsburg meant absolutely nothing to me. I feel sure I am not alone. This largely forgotten American was born in 1932, into a world in which Gilbert and Sullivan and Jerome Kern was the popular music of the day and, inspired by their ability to tell stories through music and make words 'sing, he quietly, unassumingly, created what he referred to as 'the music of poetry' or better yet Theatre Lieder. These were tiny dramas born of contemporary poems which for the most part remained tucked away in his bottom drawer until his death in 2019. Goodness knows what he would have made of this gilt-edged collection lovingly curated and co-produced by the great Tommy Krasker who came out of retirement expressly to oversee it. It is a measure of the quality and winning engagement of these songs that they could attract not only such distinguished performers but a roster of orchestrators -Jonathan Tunick, Doug Besterman, Michael Starobin and more - to lend them resonance through a 17-piece orchestra. 

Ginsburg's melodic gift clearly came as easily to him as the speaking of poems aloud. The ballads in particular shine. He honours the poetry but more importantly emotionally illuminates them from within. The collection starts with no less a star than Kelli O'Hara lending her divine voice to 'A Single Song' (poem by Sara Teasdale), a gorgeous melody so redolent of Bernstein's 'Simple Song' from Mass. 'I Want to Die While You Love Me' (Georgina Douglas Johnson) is simply glorious and delivered with great passion by Jordan Donica so haunting in his other song 'Parting' (Rabindranath Tagore). Telly Leung gives his all to 'Will Ever' (Walter de la Mare), a setting possessed of a ringing exultancy, and there's an almost operatic reach to Jason Danieley's songs: 'When We Two Parted' (Lord Byron) and 'I Thank You God' (E E Cummings) which is a fanfare of a number with brilliant brassy touches, turning it into something of a thanksgiving hymn. Victoria Clark brings her intensely personal touch to 'What Lips My Lips Have Kissed' (Edna St Vincent Millay) and there's the lovely Mikaela Bennett (Julie Jordan in John Wilson's new Carousel) bringing something of a throwback quality to 'There Will Come Soft Rains' (Teasdale again), calling to mind the era of musical comedy so beloved of Ginsburg. He also has the measure of quirkier more fanciful poems like 'I Am Cherry Alive' (Delmore Schwartz), given a coloratura twist by Lauren Worsham. A Parting Gift' indeed. I simply adored it.

Review by Edward Seckerson