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but it was always as important to the success of the recital as the singers. Goodson's program notes and translations were models of taste, intelligence, and, like her performance, enthusiasm. While Brahms's robust settings of Tieck's ersatz medieval romances are not among his most subtle or profound songs, Goodson's passionate energy made them wholly persuasive.
For her recital at the U-M School of Music on Sunday, May 15, Goodson has programmed songs and sonatas of Charles Ives. She has clearly put much time and thought into the form and shape of the recital: while Ives's two violin sonatas are the longest works on the program, they are embedded in a larger concept. In a program entitled The Man of 1,000 Faces, Goodson and her soloists will explore Ives's views on religion, serenity, American life, memories, and transcendentalism. Performing with violinist Gabriel Bolkosky of the Phoenix Ensemble and mezzo-soprano Leah Dexter of the Michigan Opera Theater, baritone Christopher Grapentine of Northside Community Church, and tenor Gregory Wakefield of the U-M computer science faculty, Goodson has planned a recital as individualistic and eccentric as the composer himself.