Lamenting Earth
Nicholas Phan, tenor | Myra Huang, piano
Jasper String Quartet
J Freivogel, Karen Kim, violins
Andrew Gonzalez, viola
Rachel Henderson Freivogel, cello
17th April 2026
AV2828 | 822252282825 (CD & Digital)
£13.49 (1CD Digipack) - PRE-ORDER
Summary:
Lamenting Earth, the latest release from tenor Nicholas Phan, in collaboration with The Jasper Quartet and pianist Myra Huang, explores humanity’s interaction with nature as expressed through music by Schubert, Vaughan Williams, Ives, Patrick Castillo and Vivian Fung.
Lamenting Earth, the latest release from GRAMMY® Award-winning tenor Nicholas Phan, in collaboration with The Jasper Quartet and his long-time performing partner pianist Myra Huang, explores humanity’s interaction with nature as expressed through composers of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
Franz Schubert’s songs evoke images of water, stillness, and solitude as mirrors of human emotion. Vaughan Williams’s On Wenlock Edge, drawing on A. E. Housman’s poetry, places the individual within vast cycles of time and landscape – hills, wind, and earth – which persist beyond human joy and grief alike. Ives’s Housatonic at Stockbridge memories, hymns, and the river blend together into a shimmering meditation on transcendence, where nature becomes a spiritual threshold rather than a backdrop.
21st century responses include Patrick Castillo’s Skyline Palimpsest, an homage to New York City, once his hometown, that reflects on how nature’s effects may shape the future of the metropolis. The title track by Canadian-born composer Vivian Fung, pairs American writer Claire Wahmanholm’s poem “O” – which has been described as a lament, an elegy, and a clarion call to action – with Gen Z-ers urgent written responses to climate change.
Nicholas Phan’s burnished tone and passion for vocal chamber music bring vivid beauty to the range of repertoire that shares a central theme.
Lamenting Earth is released to coincide with World Earth Day (22 April 2026).
Tracklist:
Lamenting Earth
FRANZ SCHUBERT (1797–1828)
1. Auf dem Wasser zu singen D.774
2. Wandrers Nachtlied D.768
3. Am See D.746
RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872–1958)
On Wenlock Edge
4. I. On Wenlock Edge
5. II. From Far From Eve & Morning
6. III. Is my team ploughing?
7. IV. Oh when I was in love
8. V. Bredon Hill
9. VI. Clun
Charles Ives (1874–1954)
10. The Housatonic at Stockbridge
Patrick Castillo (b.1979)
11. Skyline Palimpsest
Vivian Fung (b.1975)
Lamenting Earth
12. I. November Blooming
13. II. Lament
14. III. O
15. IV. Vast, Green
Nicholas Phan, tenor
Myra Huang, piano (1–10, 12–15)
Jasper String Quartet (4–9, 11–15)
J Freivogel, Karen Kim, violins
Andrew Gonzalez, viola
Rachel Henderson Freivogel, cello
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