Luja Classics Releases 'Erik Charlston Sings Lieder'

Luja Classics announces new release of the CD recording Erik Charlston Sings Liederfeaturing Erik Charlston, baritone, accompanied by Virginia Perry Lamb on piano. The recording will be available for sale on Tuesday, September 3, 2013, starting at www.cdbaby.com. Produced and engineered by Grammy Award winner Adam Abeshouse, Erik Charlston Sings Lieder was recorded on September 30,October 2, and November 11, 2012

The recording features Schumann's Dichterliebe and songs by Strauss. Dichterliebe, or "The Poet's Love," is the best-known song cycle by Robert Schumann and includes the text from Lyrisches Intermezzo by Heinrich Heine. The four songs by Strauss, "Traum durch die Dämmerung," "All mein Gedanken," "Die Nacht," and "Cäcilie," set texts by Bierbaum, Dahn, von Gilm and Hart. Both collections show the composers' genius for expression in this idiom.

"This music cast a spell on me many years ago. Music and poetry, when so potently combined, create a powerful force that finds its way directly into the soul. Schumann's setting of Heine's text in the 'Dichterliebe' is a journey that takes the listener from the pure joy of early love to the utter despair of rejection. The emotional clarity this music brings to that journey still leaves me stunned after all these years. And Strauss! These four gorgeous songs are, in order of appearance, sexy, joyful, dark, and romantically impassioned. I've always wanted to record this beautiful music and was so happy that the wonderful Virginia Perry Lamb was able to join me"

For complete track list and to pre-order, visit www.cdbaby.com, as well as Amazon and iTunes.

Erik Charlston is a singer and percussionist living in New York City. He performs regularly at home and abroad with the New York Philharmonic, with such varied groups as The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Mostly Mozart, with artists such as Sting, Elton John and Tony Bennett, as well as on Broadway. Recording credits include radio, television, dozens of film soundtracks and numerous record labels such as Sony, Telarc and Nonesuch. He teaches at the Manhattan School of Music, and his own group, Erik Charlston JazzBrasil, recently released their first CD, "Essentially Hermeto," on Sunnyside Records.

Equally at home in vocal and instrumental repertoire, Virginia Perry Lamb has appeared as a collaborative pianist with both singers and instrumentalists in concerts in the United States and abroad. She has recorded with numerous members of the New York Philharmonic and has performed as a guest artist at Avery Fisher Hall and at Merkin Hall on the Philharmonic's chamber music series. Ms. Lamb taught "The Art of Accompanying" at the Manhattan School of Music for over twenty years and now maintains an active teaching studio at home along with her performing career.

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