Honens @ Home: Yoon-Jee Kim performs Barber

Composed in 1953 and translated from Gaelic or Latin poems,
Samuel Barber's Hermit Songs Op. 29 ranks among the great song
cycles of the twentieth century. 


Barber was naturally drawn to vocal expression in his
compositions. Upon discovering the verses, he said: "I have come
across some poems of the 10th century, translated into Modern
English by various people, and am making a song cycle of them.
These were extraordinary men, monks or hermits or what not and
they wrote these little poems. I find them very direct,
unspoiled, and often curiously contemporaneous in feeling."


In this excerpt you hear two songs from the cycle, The Monk and
His Cat and The Desire for Hermitage, performed at the 2015
Honens International Piano Competition by Semifinalist Yoon-Jee
Kim and soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian.

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Watch the video edition of this excerpt at honens.com/home.