A Composers' Goldmine
CD Review by Leonard Lehrman (v.15#2, p.26)

Songs to Seraphine: Diverse Settings of Heine's 15-Poem Cycle. Twenty settings of 15 poems in cycle by Heinrich Heine. Music written for this concert by Erwin Ernst Wilhelm Meier, Richard Farber, Don Forsythe, Nancy Rice, Joshua Stamper, Leonard Lehrman, Gerald Ginsburg, Paul Dedell, 11 more composers from 1860-1919. Peter Shea, tenor; Elise Jackendoff, pno. Recorded in performance at Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church, Cambridge, Mass. Oct. 28, 2007. Time: 43:51

Another solo album emanating from Massachusetts, this one with tenor and piano, features the indefatigable Amherst librarian, researcher and Heine promoter Peter Shea, who has discovered over 10,000 settings of Heine's poetry, collected over 2400, and commissioned and premiered dozens of new ones. In this cycle, set to poems Heine grouped together in the 1830s, Shea has assembled a delicious variety of styles, all beautifully interpreted by singer and accompanist alike. The CD and ample notes are available from him directly at 23 Stagecoach Rd., Amherst MA 01002 for just $10 postpaid-a bargain if I've ever heard of one, even speaking (proudly) as one of the 8 composers premiered.