Balch: estrangement

Description

This highly expressive and inventive song cycle utilizes a lush prepared piano sound-world intertwined with beautiful vocal writing and text setting. The composer tells us, "This cycle is imagined as a companion piece to Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe, though it may be performed on its own in full or as selections. If programmed alongside Dichterliebe, an ideal performance would involve alternating/ intertwining songs from each set to invite a dialogue between the two perspectives of love portrayed in the respective narratives of each cycle."