Tim Mahon wrote:

>Would knowledgeable Listers care to enumerate works based on the poetry of
>Whitman? I would be interested in conducting a comparison in styles and
>treatment.

For starters, there's Hindemith's *When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd
- A Requiem for Those We Loved* for Baritone, Mezzo-Soprano, Full Chorus
and Orchestra.  I just sang in a performance of it a few months ago and
found it to be a wonderful work, though it takes some getting to know to
appreciate it.  I didn't find the baritone parts to be particularly
interesting -- mostly quasi-recitative.  The few mezzo parts were much more
so.  In my opinion, the best parts go to the chorus, who sings, among other
things, an exciting fugue, a Death Carol and a March.  There are at least
three performances on CD -- one on Wergo, one on Berlin Classics, and one
on Telarc.  The Telarc is, I believe, the only one in English (though
Hindemith did his own German translation for the work) and features the
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Robert Shaw, who
commissioned the work in the first place in the '40s.

Rich Putter
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