Roger Sessions - When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd (1977)

Of the numerous settings of Walt Whitman’s poetry to music, Sessions's When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd is generally agreed to be one of the very finest and most sensitive. His mature style—a highly personal, instantly recognizable mix of severity and control with passion and serenity—projects the poetry now in simple chordal declamation, now in the long, high-arched melodies of which he is the master, conveying wonderfully the feel and variety of Whitman’s lines. Over the years, Sessions’s elegy has taken its place as one of the cornerstones of the American choral repertory.


Roger Sessions (1896-1985)
Poem by Walt Whitman

1 Part One (5:37)
2 Part Two (16:05)
3 Part Three (20:26)

Esther Hinds, soprano
Florence Quivar, mezzo-soprano
Dominic Cossa, baritone

Tanglewood Festival Chorus
John Oliver, chorus master

Boston Symphony Orchestra
Seiji Ozawa, conductor

New World Records: 80296-2