Dawn Upshaw: The Girl with Orange Lips

This was a seminal recital album: Dawn Upshaw not only came of age artistically but showed the world she wouldn't be maintaining the status quo repertoire. The program is a carefully sequenced succession of darkly mysterious exotica, including Maurice Delage's Four Hindu Poems, Stravinsky's Three Japanese Lyrics and Ravel's Three Mallarme Poems, all abstractly poetic and couching the voice in chamber ensembles with unusual instrumental combinations. What makes Upshaw so perfect for this is that her clarity of voice and purpose keep it all from becoming puzzling and obscure. --David Patrick Stearns