This album consists entirely of recording premières; no other discs of this repertoire have been released to date. The Altman works (Mountain Interval) were composed for Eley and Penna, and the final Hennessy song (I TASTE a liquor never brewed) was written for Eley, who performed it in recital with the composer at the piano.
PREVIOUS RECORDINGS BY ELEY AND PENNA
Drifts and Shadows: American Song for the New Millennium (Albany Records): “No matter what technical and expressive hurdles these songs present, Eley surmounts them with conviction and assurance…What they achieve here is truly profound.” (Journal of Singing) “This is a miraculous compilation of gems…a Want List candidate.” (Fanfare)
Der Geist spricht/The Spirit Speaks (Centaur Records): “To put across a dire-foreboding program such as this requires the utmost in intelligence and interpretive insight. Elem Eley and JJ Penna possess both, plus the technical powers to do justice to awesome settings of awesome literary texts.” (Audio Visual Club of Atlanta)