A wide variety of compositions by Edith Hemenway are faithfully interpreted by the voices of sopranos Roberta Alexander and Claron McFadden along with Nancy Braithwaite/cl, Michael Stirling/cel and Vaughan Schlepp/p in support or on their own. Duets between the voices and Schlepp create an embracing Mozartian “Island” and a clippety clopped “Down and Out.” Six pieces that have soprano, clarinet and piano to interpret poems by Robert Louis Stevenson are parlor rich on the elliptical “Fairy Bread” and ebullient for “Where Go The Nights?”while Old World moods are delivered on poems by WS Merwin with Stirling adding Mahlerian moods for “Moderate, despondent” and “Very Slow and Expressive…” as Braithwaite’s clarinet brings dark drapery to the room.
Without voices, Braithwaite is richly toned on the modern “landscape Viewed From a Train Window” with Schlepp in a Satie-esque mood for the playful “The Dog Plagued By Fleas” and “Waterfalls” as Stirling broods during her “Siesta.” Piano and clarinet ruminate for the contemplative title track, with all of the moods sounding both contemporary and yet from a different and simpler time.