That Star in the Picture

"…Prepare to be swept away by the beauty of Adler's melodies and engaging performances by splendid collaborators who deliver his material with clear and abiding affection. Boasting songs of immense refinement and poignancy, That Star in the Picture is the kind of recording that leaves you hungry for more."

"Adler possesses a genuine melodic gift. “Pie Jesu,” originally the seventh movement from Memento mori: An AIDS Requiem, works beautifully here in a sensitive arrangement for mezzo-soprano, clarinet, horn, cello, and piano."

“…This is an intimate and engaging album that celebrates the American tradition of songs for musicals — a genre that was born and proliferates on Broadway — with music and performances of the highest level. New Yorker James Adler, with his light and gentle piano touch, wonderfully accompanies the splendid voices of great singers: mezzo-soprano Victoria Livengood, soprano Shana Farr, soprano Elizaveta Ulakhovich, tenor Kennedy Kanagawa, tenor Michael Buchanan, and baritone Perry Sook. They are assisted by excellent musicians flautist Denise Koncelik, clarinetist Francis Novak, cellist Adam Fisher, hornist Kyle Walker, and oboist Brian Shaw. Adler succeeds in composing beautiful and inspired songs like the sweet Pie Jesu, and the lyrical Beautiful Garden, where the vocal melodies provide a magnificent counterpoint to the instrumental lines. Also very interesting are the more ‘theatrical’ That Star in the Picture, the delicate and graceful Growing, and the graceful and sweet Beyond Night — songs, like all the others on the CD, of great elegiac and compositional depth, in the most beautiful and refined tradition of the American musical. The lyrics are taken from poems by Emily Dickinson and from the pens of James Griener, Mae Richard, Rosalie Calabrese and Carmel Friedman; Adler’s compositional knowledge sets them all splendidly. A disc of great value, to be savored slowly, full of taste and refinement, in which we can totally immerse ourselves in the sounds and fascinating harmonies of the world of American musicals.”

“Breathing fresh life into the Art Song form, That Star in the Picture proves that excellent words plus passionate music still complement each other just as colorfully as in the days of the Victorian parlor song when a whole story could be told in a song. James Adler has chosen texts by Emily Dickinson and from the poets of today, to weave story-telling with music of the highest order.”