249. Love Fail

The Concert - Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Work for voices by David Lang, performed by Lorelei Ensemble on January 10, 2016.

• Lang, David: Love Fail

This month’s podcast tend towards the introspective: an hourlong work by contemporary composer David Lang for women’s voices, a timeless meditation on the allures and disappointments of love, titled Love Fail.

Lang started with one of history’s most famous tales of star-crossed love: the Tristan and Isolde myth. But he added words and ideas from modern stories and authors, stripping away specific references to his historical source, creating a text that explores the promises and pitfalls of love in a timeless, anonymous setting. The protagonists are referred to as “he” and “she”—because they are nameless, they come to feel universal.

The work was written for and premiered by vocal quartet Anonymous 4, an ensemble that specializes in medieval music, and there is a starkness and simplicity to the music that evokes ancient times. We’ll hear it performed in a newer, slightly lusher version for chamber chorus, sung by the all-female Lorelei Ensemble.