An Old Song Re-Sung American Concert Songs (1990)

'What is unique to American song is demonstrated in the kind of number included here: songs written predominantly by the so-called 'serious' composer, but with the ultimate goals being not only the immediate effect for the audience, but actually the song for the song's sake alone. The form or type of song becomes a means to an end. Whether from folk-music origins, nineteenth-century romanticism, Anglo-American ballads, Negro Spirituals or even popular songs, it is the spontaneous emotional experience of the song that matters above all'. (Bariton Thomas Hampson, in het CD-boekje).