Chelsea Hart Melcher, Paul Melcher - So Smooth, So Sweet: Songs of Allen Sapp (2025) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. The Lady and the Lute: No. 1, So Smooth, So Sweetr
02. The Lady and the Lute: No. 2, Clear Are Her Eyes
03. The Lady and the Lute: No. 3, Her Pretty Feet
04. The Lady and the Lute: No. 4, Put Up Your Silks
05. The Lady and the Lute: No. 5, Whenas in Silks My Julia Goes
06. The Lady and the Lute: No. 6, A Sweet Disorder in the Dress
07. The Lady and the Lute: No. 7, Goe, Perjur'd Man
08. The Lady and the Lute: No. 8, When I Thy Singing Next Shall Heare
09. Nursery Rhymes: No. 1, Ride a Cock-Horse
10. Nursery Rhymes: No. 2, Old Mother Hubbard
11. Nursery Rhymes: No. 3, Little Jack Horner
12. Nursery Rhymes: No. 4, Hickory Dickory Duck
13. 2 Songs: No. 1, Anonymous Eponymous
14. 2 Songs: No. 2, Riley Set Wryly
15. Affliction: No. 1, When First Thou Didst Entice to Thee My Heart
16. Affliction: No. 2, I Looked on Thy Furniture So Fine
17. Affliction: No. 3, What Pleasures Could I Want
18. Affliction: No. 4, At First Thou Gav'st Me Milk and Sweetnesses
19. Affliction: No. 5, My Flesh Began unto My Soul in Pain
20. Affliction: No. 6, When I Got Health
21. Affliction: No. 7, Whereas My Birth and Spirit
22. Affliction: No. 8, Yet, for I Threaten'd Oft the Siege to Raise
23. Affliction: No. 9, Yet Lest Perchance I Should Too Happie Be
25. Affliction: No. 11, Yet, Though Thou Troublest Me

Chelsea Hart Melcher’s debut album, SO SMOOTH, SO SWEET, vibrantly introduces works by Harvard composer Allen Sapp (1922-1999), highlighting Melcher’s emotive and powerful singing alongside Sapp’s lyrical text setting, harmonic richness, and evolving style across decades. This album features the charming early neoclassical work Nursery Rhymes, two powerfully lyrical and expressive song cycles, Affliction and The Lady and the Lute (both set to English Renaissance poetry), and two whimsical and playful songs set to Romantic era poetry from Sapp’s later period, “Anonymous Eponymous” and “Riley Set Wryly.”

Libby Larsen has said of Chelsea Hart Melcher’s singing, “Her voice is like a cello, with such a deep and beautiful resonance… Her phrasing and coloring is absolutely beautiful… stunning!” Melcher masterfully performs these song cycles by Piston and Copland protégé Allen Sapp in their premiere recordings.

Allen Sapp composer
Chelsea Hart Melcher soprano
Paul Melcher piano

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