11 February 1983
Terrance Theatre, Kennedy Center, Washington DC
Phyllis Bryn-Julson, soprano / Donald Sutherland, piano

from Pomes Penyeach by James Joyce

1. Bahnhofstrasse ("to Sophia Levy")
2. Alone ("to Pauline Hanson")

BAHNHOFSTRASSE and ALONE, though written in 1959, have only recently been published. Both are freely chromatic and even, at times, atonal. The bitter text of BANNHOFSTRASSE is emphasized by a stabbing E — B flat tritone appearing insistently in the bass of the piano part. ALONE is more varied with its cloudy, contrapuntal opening, its scurrying, mysterious middle section, and its arching and impassioned concluding phrase.