Work for string quartet performed by Musicians from Marlboro on April 12, 2014 and works for voice and piano by Harry Burleigh performed by New York Festival of Song on October 14, 2012.

• Dvořák: Cypresses for String Quartet B. 152
• Burleigh: A Birthday Song
• Burleigh: Little David Play on Your Harp
• Burleigh: Stan’ Still Jordan
• Burleigh: Steal Away
• Burleigh: O Rocks, Don’t Fall on Me

An advance warning: this podcast program may have you humming all day long. Our program features eminently sing-able works by two composers: Dvorak and Harry Burleigh.

We’ll start with Dvorak’s Cypresses for string quartet, an instrumental piece based on a set of songs the composer wrote as a young man, settings of the poetry of the Moravian writer Gustav Pfleger-Moravsky The poems are steeped in the emotion of young love. Some movements also touch on the deep pain felt when a first love is lost. The string quartet arrangement has 12 brief movements, totaling about 20 minutes. The performance we’ll hear is by Musicians from Marlboro.

Then, we have performers from the New York Festival of Song, offering up a number of short works by the African-American composer and arranger Harry T. Burleigh. In the 1920’s, Burleigh’s songs and arrangements of spirituals were immensely popular recital fare. The selections we’ll hear include both originals, such as the first piece “A Birthday Song,” and arrangements, including “Steal Away” and “Stan’ Still Jordan.” The podcast ends with all three singers—sopranos Julia Bullock & Dina Kuznetsova, and baritone James Martin—performing “O Rocks, Don’t Fall on Me.”