Sallie Chisum Remembers Billy the Kid: Songs by Copland, Barber, Previn & Argento

Though American, Barbara Bonney has spent most of her career in Europe and, up until recently, never saw the need to sing in English. But this collection is entirely in English, featuring the title piece written for her by Previn--sort of a tone poem for voice, nice but not great--plus Samuel Barber's more familiar Hermit Songs, Dominick Argento's Six Elizabethan Songs and Aaron Copland's Twelve Poems of Emily Dickinson. It's one of her best recordings and a big step in the gradual evolution of an artist who began as another pretty-voiced soprano and is becoming one of the most memorable recitalists of her generation. --David Patrick Stearns