VA - Harlequin's Rainbow (2022)

Robert Xavier Rodríguez's (b. 1946) music has been described as "romantically dramatic" and glowing with a physical animation and delicate balance of moods that combine seductively with his all-encompassing sense of humor." He has received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among many other prizes. He has served as composer-in-residence with the San Antonio Symphony and the Dallas Symphony. His music appears on more than 20 recordings. The music on this recording include a song cycle for mezzo-soprano and string quartet based on poems from Albert Giraud's Pierrot Lunaire. The second work, a Romance With a Double Bass is for narrator, double bass, and piano and is based on a comic short story by Anton Chekhov. Performers include the Amernet String Quartet, mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway, bassist Daniel Nix, pianist Mikhail Berestnev, and narrator Mary-Margaret Pyeatt.