The Carnegie Hall Corporation commissioned musical theater composer
Maury Yeston (Nine, Grand Hotel) to write the song cycle
December Songs (inspired by
Schubert's Winterreise, aka "Winter Journey") for cabaret singer
Andrea Marcovicci in honor of Carnegie Hall's Centennial Season, and she premiered it at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall on April 16, 1991. In May 1992, she made this recording. Consisting of ten romantic ballads,
December Songs is, as might be expected, a wistful work.
Yeston's background in the musical theater certainly comes through in the sense of character and the suggestions of stories in the songs, but the cycle does not add up to a single plot, nor do the songs necessarily seem to be sung by a single female character. But the sensibility is consistent, as the singer alternately longs for romance and fears it, when she isn't recalling a past love or reflecting on other sentimental subjects. The music, played solely by pianist Glenn Mehrbach, is more substantial and inventive than the lyrics, although it is easy to imagine one of these songs turning up in a theatrical production. (In fact, there are certain similarities to
Andrew Lloyd Webber's more story-driven "Tell Me on a Sunday," presented on Broadway as part of the musical Song and Dance.) If
Marcovicci seems like the ideal interpreter of these songs, that isn't only because they were written expressly for her. A compelling singer/actress, she gives them a combination of emotional commitment and precise performance, both inhabiting the conflicting feelings and presenting them to the listener for contemplation. ~ William Ruhlmann