Catalog

Christopher Pegis, cellist is the founder and Artistic Director of Amici Chamber Players and a cellist with the Florida String Quartet. He writes: "This recording is in many ways a product of my large extended musical family, my work with the Florida West Coast Symphony, and indeed the very nature of creative collaborations. Although it was not planned this way, the performers and composers are all linked to one another in some way by family, friendship and work. I was lucky to have met Soulima Stravinsky and his wife, Francoise, and was involved in earlier recordings and performances of his music before they both passed away. Through the Stravinskys, a link was made to his father Igor and to fellow composer Charles Jones. Although my memory of this is dim, apparently I did shake Jones' hand at a reception in New York City following my ensemble's concert to honor Soulima's chamber music compositions. Thomas Massella and Efrain Amaya are former college classmates of myself and my wife, respectively; Paul Ramsier came to us via the Florida West Coast Symphony and his collaborations with Symphony bassist John Miller. When we started to physically record this music, we jointly decided to try to avoid cutting and splicing at all costs. Our aim was to impart the excitement and sweep of a live performance to our audience. This put extra pressure on all of the performers, but the result is that what you are hearing is 98% splice free from beginning to end. In fact, nine of the eleven compositions are complete takes from start to finish."

Yulan, an acrobatic, dance and visual extravaganza featuring the Dalian Acrobatic Troupe of China came about as a collaboration between dancer/choreographer Dennis Nahat, his Chinese colleagues, and composer Paul Chihara. Nahat, who was artistic director of the Ballet San Jose and founder of Theatre Ventures International School and Productions, was invited to China by Zhao Bin to create a work of international scope for the Dalian Acrobatic Troupe of China. Nahat enlisted Paul Chihara to compose music for the production and subsequently to conduct the orchestra for the performances and recording. The premiere took place November 28, 2012 in Dalian, China. Yulan means a magnolia flower and is one of the earliest flowers to bloom in the spring in Shanghai. Paul Chihara has composed scores for more than 100 motion pictures and television series. He was awarded the Composer-of-the-Year by the Classical Recording Foundation in 2008 and is on the faculty at UCLA.

Composer and conductor, Victoria Bond has written for every medium including opera, orchestra, ballet and chamber music. She was born in Los Angeles into a family of professional musicians. She studied composition with Ingolf Dahl at the University of Southern California, and with Roger Sessions at the Juilliard School, becoming the first woman to earn a doctorate degree in orchestral conducting in 1977. While still at Juilliard, she worked with composers Pierre Boulez and Aaron Copland as assistant conductor of the Contemporary Music Ensemble. Chosen by Dennis Russell Davies to be his assistant at the Cabrillo Music Festival in California and The White Mountains Music Festival in New Hampshire, she premiered numerous works including her own compositions. She has served as Music Director and Conductor of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra from 1986-1995 and Artistic Director of Opera Roanoke (1989-1995) and The Hamburg Opera (1997-2003).

It was Biljana Milovanovic, pianist for the Ibis Camerata ensemble, who conceived this project of recording a group of compositions by Yehudi Wyner. Mr. Wyner performed in one piece (with Richard Stoltzman) and conducted another, but his major contribution was in coaching performers in matters of his style. The music spans 50 years of Wyner's compositional output beginning with the Partita for Piano of 1952 and arriving at Commedia for Clarinet and Piano of 2002. Awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2006, Yehudi Wyner is one of America's most versatile musicians. His compositions include more than 60 works and he has received many commissions and honors in addition to the Pulitzer. He has taught at Yale, SUNY Purchase, Cornell, Harvard and Brandeis. This is the fourth recording by the Ibis Camerata to appear on Albany Records.

In the January-February 1998 issue of Fanfare, John Story writing about Yannatos' Trinity Mass said: "Trinity Mass is possibly a masterpiece worthy to stand comparison with such other 20th-century milestones as Britten's War Requiem, Tippet's A Child of Our Time and The Mask of Time, Penderecki's St. Luke's Passion, or Nono's Prometeo. The two works on this disc are the equal to the Trinity Mass, if not easier to enjoy because they are Orchestral works and the performances by both the Orchestra and the pianist are first-rate. The performers, under the composer's direction, play as well as any in this unfamiliar music. In 1988, William Doppmann asked Yannatos to write a piano concerto for him. He asked that it be a substantial piece which would show off the piano in various ways. Yannatos writes: "I started to think of ways to approach this formidable task in the summer of 1992, started to compose the work in the fall of 1992, and finished it in the spring of 1993, completing the Orchestration that summer. My own guidelines included writing a piece that linked the past to the present, musically and pianistically, presented both piano and Orchestra in a mutually dependent partnership and played with the notion of transformation and renewal in the cycles of the seasons and in the linkage and development of musical ideas." About his Symphony No. 4, Yannatos writes: "I was transfixed by events in Tiananmen Square - excited by the students' quest for greater freedom and appalled by the brutal response by the government. As a musician, I felt compelled to speak out the only way I could. I spent the summer of 1989 immersed in the rhythms and cadences of Chinese folk tunes from a collection by Yuen Ren Chao given to me by his daughter, Rulan Chao Pian, my colleague in the music department. Elements of these tunes were chosen to serve as my musical materials for the six-movement symphony I planned to write. Sketches were made that summer and the work was completed and Orchestrated by January 1990."

This release fills a hole in the catalog large enough to drive a truck through. This is the world premiere stereo release, the world premiere CD release of Walter Piston's Third Symphony. The only recording of this serious, somber, most beautiful of Mr. Piston's symphonies was made almost fifty years ago by Howard Hanson for Mercury. The Symphony is dedicated to the memory of Natalie Koussevitsky. It is particularly appropriate for Jimmy Yannatos and the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra to bring us this important music because Piston was closely associated with Harvard throughout his life. He attended Harvard as an undergraduate, joined the faculty in 1926, and became a full professor in 1944, remaining at Harvard for many years. It is also just as fitting that this disc contains the work of another American composer closely associated with Harvard, James Yannatos, who has conducted the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra since 1964. Those who are familiar with Yannatos' other works on Albany Records will know what to expect from this fine composer. His Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra was written for the Mendelssohn String Quartet while the composer was on a sabbatical leave from Harvard during February to June 1995. The Symphony No. 3 was commissioned by Joel Spiegelman in 1989 for concerts he was to conduct in the former Soviet Union with the Lithuanian State Symphony. Many customers will buy this CD because of the Piston Third, but they will be most pleasantly surprised at the bonuses presented to them by the music of Yannatos. His music is a perfect compliment to the music of Piston.

About his Symphony No. 5 James Yannatos writes: "Symphony No. 5: Sons et Lumiere (1991) derives its title from the sound and light shows so popular in France in which historical events related to a particular epoch, chateau, or monument are dramatized through the use of sound and light. The title alludes to past as well as to present events in which the political face of Europe and Africa is changing. On another level, Sons et Lumiere refers to vibrations and waves that move through real time and space in the form of sound and interplay between the various levels of musical sound and meaning, referring to our physical world as we live it, our sensory world as we see, hear and feel it, and our spiritual world as we attempt to comprehend it." In May of every other year more than 900 cello lovers - from beginning cellists to esteemed cello soloists - congregate in Manchester, England for the International Cello Festival. The brain-child of cellist Ralph Kirschbaum, this festival features workshops, films, exhibitions, and performances by and for cellists. The Festival almost always features a premiere of a cello piece, and in 1994, Yehudi Wyner was commissioned to compose a piece for cello and orchestra. The result was the Prologue and Narrative for cello and orchestra, which Wyner himself describes: "Finding a title for the piece has been a difficult task. To call it a Concerto for Cello and Orchestra would be misleading, since the term "concerto" implies a form as well as a relationship. In general, my musical thinking is not comfortable with conventional modes of construction, nor does it rely on received conventions of form. While the music is constructed with great attention to contextual unity and formal coherence, it also strives for a sense of the informal, the improvisational, the spontaneous." Composer Charles Fussell was Artistic Director of New Music Harvest, Boston's first city-wide festival of contemporary music and Co-Founder and Director of the New England Composer's Orchestra. He is a member of the composition faculty at Boston University. His Symphony No. 5 was written in 1994-95 in memory of Virgil Thomson. The premiere was given November 1996 by the New Hampshire Symphony under the direction of James Bolle.

Two young stellar musicians, cellist Xiao-Dan Zheng and pianist Clara Yang collaborate on a recording of music by Edvard Grieg and Sergei Prokofiev that includes sonatas for cello by both composers and two works for piano. Ms. Zheng is a member of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra and previously served as principal cellist of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. Her awards include a Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society Young Artist Award and the ASCAP Ira Gershwin Award, among many others. Clara Yang, on the faculty at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, has a varied career as a soloist, chamber music musician and educator. She has performed concertos with the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Longview Symphony, the Eastman Philharmonia, the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra.

As renowned trombonist James Pugh writes, "If there's anything (these works) have in common, it's that, while they can all be heard as serious works, they each contain elements of popular music of their time - they combine traditional classical elements with popular harmony and rhythm..."

The American composer and organist Frank Speller teaches organ and harpsichord at the University of Texas in Austin. He has degrees from the University of Colorado and Indiana University. About his music he writes: "Music has far greater power than merely to please or displease. Its capacity to bring inner richness and harmony has been commonly acknowledged throughout the history of music. J.S. Bach, for example, said that a good basso continuo was good for the soul. That is why the majority of my music is religious in nature. Even the Passacaglia is a description of the joy of something bigger than any of us. My intention is always present, even though it is sometimes realized in playful ways." The instrument used in this recording is one of the largest tracker-action organs in the United States: a musical and engineering feat which, if not for its quality of craftsmanship and sound, would alone mark it as noteworthy. A "tracker" is a flat strip of wood that conveys the action of the keyboard of "manual" directly to the organ pipes. Although many of the organ's functions are electronically controlled, such as the stop action and the computer memory piston system, the trackers are traditional wooden linkages whose origins date back at least 2000 years. The organ has 5,315 pipes that range from the giant 16 foot principals to pipes smaller than an ordinary pencil. The sound on this recording is astonishingly dynamic and realistic.

There is a fact in American music that can no longer be overlooked. There are a great number of composers over 65 who are very important and who are routinely overlooked by the major labels. This is shameful. In the fifties the music of Benjamin Lees, relatively speaking, was everywhere; the concert hall, RCA Victor, Turnabout, Louisville. So, when you have a magnificent pianist, Ian Hobson, performing the music of an equally magnificent composer, Benjamin Lees, you have an important disc. The Piano Sonata No. 4 was commissioned by the Ford Foundation for Gary Graffman and given its world premiere in Norfolk, Virginia. The Fantasy Variations are dedicated to Emanuel Ax who gave them their world premiere on February 1, 1984 at the Kaufmann Concert Hall in New York City. Mirrors, in six sections was composed for Ian Hobson. The first four sections were premiered by Mr. Hobson in Orchestra Hall in Chicago. Since that premiere in 1992, Mr. Lees has added two more sections. Since the work is open ended, there is no telling how many sections it will ultimately have. Here we have a disc that will really appeal to all lovers of contemporary American piano music: no - in fact, contemporary music in general.

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski retains a unique position on the international musical scene, where he is both a renowned conductor and a highly regarded composer, especially of large scale orchestral works. Born in Lwow, Poland but resident in the U.S. since 1960, Skrowaczewski showed great promise as a pianist, making his debut with the Beethoven Triple Concerto, but an injury to his hands during World War II terminated his keyboard aspirations. Composing and conducting became his double focus. Directly after the War - still in his mid-twenties - he was named music director of the Breslau Philharmonic, then the Katowice Philharmonic, Krakow Philharmonic and then the Warsaw National Orchestra. During this period he also studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. In 1958, at the invitation of George Szell, he made his American conducting debut with the Cleveland Orchestra. In 1960, he was named music director of what was to become the Minnesota Orchestra, a position he was to hold for 19 years. His Passacaglia Immaginaria was completed in 1995. It unfolds in a provocative sound world. Similar to the Passacaglia of the Baroque era, a species of continuous variations on a ground, his design is based on the principle of metamorphosis. The work was commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestral Association and Eiji Oue gave the premiere with the Orchestra on April 10, 12 and 13,1996. For its 35th anniversary season in 1993-94, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, requested a new work from Skrowaczewski. The resulting Chamber Concerto was premiered on November 26, 27, 1993. In January 1981, while guest conducting in Frankfurt, Germany, Skrowaczewski finished his Clarinet Concerto, which he dedicated to Joseph Longo, the co-principal clarinetist of the Minnesota Orchestra. The premiere of this work was April 15,17,18, 1981 and again the composer conducted the orchestra.

Robert Lombardo was born in Hartford, Connecticut to Sicilian immigrants. He graduated with a master's degree in composition from the Hartt School of Music where he studied with Arnold Franchetti. He was awarded a Ph.D. in composition from the State University of Iowa. Lombardo holds the title of Professor Emeritus from Roosevelt University where he was Professor of Theory and Composition and Composer-in-residence from 1965 until 1999. The composer writes: "Although the mandolin has occasionally been used by composers in contemporary literature, e.g., Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Crumb, I always thought of the instrument in the folk category. About a dozen years ago, my perception of the use of the mandolin changed. In 1991, Dimitris Marinos, a student who recently arrived from Greece, came to my studio at Roosevelt University for his first composition lesson. He had a mandolin case tucked under his arm. After his lesson, I was curious and asked him if he wouldn't mind playing his mandolin for me. I guess I expected him to play a folk tune, and was pleasantly surprised - amazed would be a better word - when he played a very complex work replete with multiple stops, fast chromatic passages that covered the entire range of the instrument - in an apparent effortless fashion. I was captivated by this young man's musicality and virtuosity. After he showed me some of the instrument's technical capabilities, I thought about writing a short composition for him." That is the origin of how the compositions that appear on this disc came about.

This latest release in this remarkable series by the Illinois State Winds presents two major Symphonies by popular veterans of the field, Jack Stamp and David Maslanka, and introduces the music of the young American composer Kevin Krumenauer. Blue on Red explores the transition from grief and loss to life and celebration. The two colors represent a strong sense of emotion during the opening and closing movements. The renowned David Diamond was both a friend and mentor to Jack Stamp, the Professor of Music and Director of Wind Studies at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Diamond himself had written an Elegy in Memory of Ravel for winds in 1937, and it is fitting that Stamp created this tribute to Diamond within the context of the wind orchestra. Finally we hear one of the major works of the repertoire, David Maslanka's Symphony No. 2, as conductor Steele continues his series devoted to the music of this composer (previous releases are on TROY821, 774/75, 600 and 500)

A native of New Zealand, cellist Miranda Wilson has performed on five continents as a soloist and chamber musician. Educated in New Zealand, England and the U.S., she is on the faculty of the University of Idaho and is artistic co-director of the Idaho Bach Festival. Wilson has chosen to combine Ernest Bloch's three suites for solo cello with two new works by Daniel Bukvich. One of the connecting features between these two composers is their association with the Pacific Northwest. Bloch spent his last years in Oregon, while Bukvich has spent his career on the faculty at the University of Idaho. Bukvich studied Bloch's manuscripts as a student and names Bloch as one of his influences.

Women of Valor, an oratorio, is a celebration of women from the Old Testament, inspired by a midrash (biblical commentary) on Proverbs, where each line of the biblical text from Proverbs 31 represents a strong, resourceful woman. Texts for Women of Valor are drawn both from the Bible and from modern poems and prose. Women of Valor highlights the stories of Sarah, Leah, Rachel, Jocheved, Miriam, Hannah, Jael, Michal, Ruth, and Esther. The work was premiered in 2000 by the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony conducted by Noreen Green. Composer Andrea Clearfield's music has been praised by the New York Times for its "graceful tracery and lively, rhythmically vital writing" and the Los Angeles Times for its "fluid and glistening orchestration." Her awards include a Pew Fellowship in the Arts as well as fellowships at the American Academy in Rome, the MacDowell Colony, and the Rockefeller foundation's Bellagio Center, among many others. The Los Angeles Jewish Symphony is the only orchestra outside of Israel dedicated to the performance and preservation of orchestral works of distinction that explore the Jewish experience. Founded in 1994 by Noreen Green the LAJS has presented more than 20 world premieres of works by contemporary Jewish composers.

The versatile and enterprising Paul Freeman, Julia Bentley, Mary Jane Johnson and Louise Toppin here introduce four works for soprano voice and orchestra, pieces which are thoroughly modern yet continue the grand tradition of the concert aria. Robert Lombardo received his master’s degree in composition from the Hartt School of Music. Aria Variata was commissioned by the Chicago String Ensemble and its director, Alan Heatherington. A native of Texas, James Gardner studied under Anshel Brusilow and Peter Herman Adler. Scene for a Diva expressly pays homage to the kind of concert aria composed by Mozart, written as if it were an actual opera aria, complete with dramatic recitativo and cantabile sections. David Baker is Distinguished Professor of Music and Chairman of the Jazz Department at the Indiana University School of Music. Witness was commissioned by Philip Brunelle for the Plymouth Music Series of Minnesota’s 1990-1991 season. They represent the composer’s reverent treatment of heartfelt and timeless spiritual texts. Another distinguished African-American composer, Hale Smith grew up performing both classical and jazz music. He chose these particular Four Negro Spirituals because he was deeply moved by the zeal of the songs. As an outstanding composer and arranger he has captured the essence of these songs with his brilliant orchestration.

The origin of this project lies in a grant obtained by flutist Asako Arai for commissioning and performing four new works. After the pieces were performed, Arai conceived the idea of making a recording and presenting a wide panorama of music for flute from both sides of the border. Moreover, there are no strict borders as far as musical languages and chronology are concerned with the six works. Not only is there a time frame of almost half a century between the earliest and the latest of these pieces, but there is also a wide spectrum of technical and expressive means.

Lori Laitman, one of America's most prolific and widely performed composers of art song comments: "The songs on this CD are for solo voice and piano, and all have been composed since 2000, making them 21st century art song. The poems were written between 1612 and 2008...My goal is to create dramatic music to express and magnify the meaning of the poem...Each song becomes my musical interpretation of the poem."

The innovative Jeremy Muller is active as a percussionist, composer, and multimedia artists. He has performed as a featured soloist at many venues throughout the United States, Canada, and Australia and given world premieres of works by many composers including some included on this recording. Alexandre Lunsqui's Materiali includes layering of pulses and velocities generated from the exploration of materials such as clay, wood, metal, plastic, water, and air. Javier Alvarez's Temazcal is an early example of electroacoustic music. Cristyn Magnus; Pitch vs. Computer is a work that treats video games as scores, while Herbert Brün's Stalks and Trees and Drops and Clouds are very early computer work and one of the earliest conceived for a solo percussionist. Matthew Burtner's Glisten of Places is a composition and a collection method for living in the world through sound.

Harmony in Black is part of a five-year initiative by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra that aims to elevate the voices of an array of living, diverse composers throughout the United States. For this first recording composers Patrice Rushen and William Banfield are featured. Their three compositions do not quote spiritual melodies directly but do embody the spirit of those songs by drawing either on direct quotation of speeches or writings. Multi-Grammy nominated artist Patrice Rushen is admired by many for her groundbreaking achievements including serving as Musical Director for the 46th-48th Annual Grammy Awards. Dr. William Banfield has produced a body of work in the past 25 years that includes music, books, teaching and creative work that contributes to contemporary arts leadership. Banfield is an award-winning composer who is now serving as Composer-in-Residence of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.

Chris Gekker is Professor of Trumpet at the University of Maryland. As a soloist he has been featured at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe. For 18 years Chris was a member of the American Brass Quintet. He was principal trumpet of the Orchestra of St. Luke's and frequently performed and recorded as principal of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. He writes: "Eric Ewazen, David Snow, and I all entered the Eastman School of Music as freshmen in 1972, and in fact David and I were roommates that first year. We all became friends quickly, and I frequently prepared and performed their music during those student years. In the more than 30 years since then, rarely has a year gone by that I have not been involved in their works, and in some years there have been many performances. When I joined the American Brass Quintet in 1981, it was with great pleasure that I introduced pieces by David and Eric to the group, works that immediately became standards on the Quintet's recital programs and recordings. As far as our friendships have gone, well, some things do get better with age, and it is with a deep sense of gratitude that I look back upon all our years as colleagues. Both Eric and David write music that is important to me, music that I hear when I am away from my instrument, music that continues to challenge me to strive for improvement as a musician and trumpet player". David Snow holds degrees in music from Eastman and Yale University. He studied with Joseph Schwantner, Warren Benson, Samuel Adler, and Jacob Druckman. Eric Ewazen was born in 1954 in Cleveland, Ohio. He studied at Eastman and Juilliard. He has been Vice-President of the League-ISCM, Composer-in-Residence with the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble. Lecturer for the New York Philharmonic's Musical Encounters Series, and he has been on the faculty of the Juilliard School since 1980.

Pianist and composer Yvar Mikhashoff had an international performing career that led him to promote new music and American music around the world. He organized many festivals and broadcasts throughout the world, notably at the Almeida Theater in London and De Ijsbreker in Amsterdam. Mikhashoff was one of the founders of the North American New Music Festival in Buffalo and its co-director, with Jan Williams, for 11 years. The Canadian pianist Winston Choi offers splendid performances of Mikhashoff's Elemental Figures and Ravel's Gaspard. The parallel design of Ravel's work and Mikhashoff's is multi-faceted and extensive. Both are trilogies that are associated with poetry and the tempos and the structure of both works are similar.

In a very short period, Buenos Aires-born Jorge Liderman has achieved much success both on and off record. He studied in Israel under Mark Kopitman and under Ralph Shapey and Shulamit Ran in Chicago. His works have been commissioned and performed by the London Sinfonietta, the American Composers Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and many other organizations here and abroad. As he writes about these fascinating works, "I have particularly been concerned with the idea of repetition since the early 1990's, especially after the impact minimalism has had not only on my musical thinking, but also on the musical world as a whole...I have used various types of repetition to create a cohesive structure on which to base some of my works...the three works in this album were written between 1990 and 2003; in different ways they all show the use of repetition as a central element..." Here is music that combines the color of Ginastera with the rhythmic sense of Steve Reich.

The Atlanta Chamber Winds is the premiere ensemble of its type in the Southeastern United States. Founded by Robert J. Ambrose in 2006, the group comprises many of the finest professional wind players in Atlanta. The ensemble is committed to promoting and recording lesser-known works for the chamber wind medium, as demonstrated by this recording of 20th and 21st century works by composers Robert Spittal, Leslie Bassett, Tim Jansa, Esther W. Ballou, Daniel Pinkham, and Ezra Laderman. The compositions range from an octet for winds to a double woodwind quintet, to a wind sextet and a wind trio.

Professor of Music and instructor of music theory and composition at the University of Massachusetts, Robert Stern was educated at Eastman and the University of California at Los Angeles. His Ultima Fantasia was composed for the forces who have recorded it here. It reflects the composer's long standing interest in the 14th century Italian madrigal "O tu cara scienzia mia musica" by Florentia which began in 1968 with a series of works based on this madrigal. Joseph Turrin received his formal education at Eastman and the Manhattan School of Music. His Serenade Romantic was composed in the summer of 1982 for the New Jersey Wind Ensemble. The work is dedicated to the memory of Howard Hanson and is intended to be a cinematic tribute to this fine composer. Michael Daugherty writes about Motown Metal : "Motown Metal is a seven-minute composition for brass and percussion inspired by the rhythms of industrial Detroit: city of automobile clamor, the sixties Motown sounds and the nineties techno beat. It features only instruments made of metal and was premiered in February 1994 by the Detroit Chamber Winds under H. Robert Reynolds. David Maslanka's Morning Star was commissioned by the Grand Ledge, Michigan, High School Wind Symphony, Michael Kaufmann, conductor. "I was asked to write a celebratory piece for the opening of the wonderful new concert hall at Grand Ledge High. When it came time to compose, I took up a little tune that came to mind. The result is a happy piece, a concept which does not usually attach itself to my music." Maslanka's Symphony No. 4 was commissioned by a consortium of collegiate wind bands and premiered by the University of Texas at Austin Wind Ensemble during the Texas Music Educators' Convention in 1994. The backbone of the work is the weaving together of several hymn tunes. "The spontaneous rise of the impulse to shout for the joy of life" is how Maslanka describes this piece.

Richard Wilson is the composer of some eighty works in many genres, including opera. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard, Mr. Wilson holds the Mary Conover Mellon Chair in Music at Vassar; he is also Composer-in-Residence with the American Symphony Orchestra for which he gives pre-concert talks. He has been a member of the program committee of the Bard Music Festival since its inception. His String Quartet No. 3 was commissioned for the Muir String Quartet by the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation. The Muir gave the first performances at Yale and Vassar in April, 1983 and recorded the work for CRI. In July, 1984, the Delme Quartet gave the London premiere in Wigmore Hall. The String Quartet No. 4 was commissioned for the Chicago String Quartet by the Prince Charitable Trusts and the Chicago Chamber Musicians. The world premiere of the four-movement version took place at the 92nd Street Y, New York City, on January 17, 1998. The five-movement version (the version presented here) was premiered at Vassar College on February 17, 2001. In both instances, The Chicago String Quartet performed. Canzona for Horn and String Quartet was written in 2001 in memory of Luise Vosgerchian, who died in March, 2000. The composer writes: "Ms. Vosgerchian taught music at Harvard for thirty-one years beginning in 1959, the year I became a student there. A charismatic performer, lecturer and mentor, she was an inspiration to hundreds of young musicians at Harvard, Tanglewood and in the Boston area." The work received its first performance at Vassar College on February 8, 2002, by the same performers who have recorded it here.

As we pointed out in our previous release of Wallace's orchestral music (TROY557), he is no relation to the Scottish composer of the same name who lived from 1860-1940. He is definitely a modern composer with roots in traditional Romanticism but with contemporary elements that give his music a fresh sound. His principal teachers were Utah's Leroy Robertson, Egon Wellesz and Edmund Rubbra. The last is the composer Wallace most resembles; the Concerto Variations is a work of grand stature, similar in scope to the British master's earlier Symphonies. In contrast is the delightful Second Dance Suite and Cantilena, which reveal Wallace's affinity for Baroque forms. The Viola Concerto is a concise, lightly-scored work which certainly makes a welcome contribution to the still-small repertoire of modern works for the instrument. This will have great appeal for listeners who enjoy neo-Romantic music.

Those of you who know your English composers; yes, indeed, it is John McCabe who is the piano soloist in the Schuman Piano Concerto. In fact, it was John who recommended that the Orchestra perform the piece in the first place. In the new SACD format, this is a great demonstration disc to show just how good the modern orchestra can sound. Here, Credendum appears for the first time ever in stereo in any format. It is one of the loudest pieces of music ever written. The work takes its name from the Latin for "that which must be believed." It was commissioned through the Department of State (the first time a government agency had ever commissioned a piece of music) to honor UNESCO, the United Nations organization in charge of coordinating arts, science and education programs worldwide. It was premiered by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Thor Johnson conducting, on November 4, 1955, in a special concert honoring the Fifth National Conference of the United States National Commission for UNESCO. The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was originally derived from an unperformed concerto fashioned in 1938-39 and was called Concerto for Piano and Small Orchestra. It exists in an altogether other universe from the sweeping concertos of Brahms, Grieg and Tchaikovsky. Which may clarify why one disgruntled listener, in Manhattan's Town Hall on January 13, 1943, demanded that Daniel Saidenberg - who had just led the Saidenberg Little Symphony and pianist Rosalyn Tureck in the premiere performance - explain himself. "You conduct modern music," the young woman said. "Why?" William Schuman considered himself first and foremost a symphonist, and his Fourth Symphony dates from his period of greatest industry in that form, during and shortly after World War Two. (To his regret, physical disabilities disqualified him from military service). The Third arrived in late 1941, the Fourth a few months later, the Symphony for Strings (No. 5) in late 1942 and the masterful Sixth in 1948. Aaron Copland heard a performance of this symphony in the early 80s at Tanglewood and phoned Schuman to rave about the piece, calling it "wonderful" and claiming to have been wholly unfamiliar with it. On the contrary - Schuman reminded him - not only had Copland already read through the score but Schuman had even revised the end of the second movement based on the senior composer's comments. But then, that had been four decades prior: the symphony was premiered by the Cleveland Orchestra under Artur Rodzinski (to whom it was dedicated) on January 22, 1942 - a few scant weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The four compositions on this disc effectively portray both sides of William Schuman's musical personality -- from the spirited energy of American Festival Overture and the uninhibited patriotic fervor of A Free Song to the much darker character of Prelude and the profoundly moving On Freedom's Ground. One of the 20th century America's most important composers and arts administrators, William Schuman (1910-1992) went from being a Tin Pan Alley song plugger to professor at Sarah Lawrence to president of Juilliard and finally, to president of Lincoln Center. With the exception of the oft-recorded American Festival Overture, these are world premiere recordings and represent the many sides of this extraordinarily creative musical mind. Joseph Polisi, the current president of Juilliard and author of American Muse: The Life and Times of William Schuman has provided the notes.

William Kraft was appointed to the Dorothy and Sherrill C. Corwin Chair in Music Composition at the University of California at Santa Barbara in September, 1991, in recognition of his long and distinguished career as a composer, conductor and teacher. He served as percussionist and timpanist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 1955-1981 and he was the Orchestra's first composer-in-residence. He also served as regular guest conductor and was assistant conductor for three seasons. His music has been performed by every major American Orchestra and he has won numerous awards. Established in 1969 by music director Richard Pittman, the Boston Musica Viva is one of the oldest, most distinguished new music ensembles in the United States. With rare exceptions, a new work is premiered at each one of their concerts, usually from an American composer. Jane Manning has long been established internationally as a leading exponent of contemporary music, with more than 300 premieres to her credit. Her extensive discography includes works by Messiaen, Schoenberg and Ligeti, with conductors such as Boulez and Rattle. It is a pleasure for Albany Records to bring you such a distinguished group of performers giving us Mr. Kraft's music. All the works recorded here are world premieres.

William Appling, who died in 2008, felt that the music of Joplin and Bach were perfect compliments to each other. He was passionate to have people hear that the two composers were comparable in the caliber of their work. Bach wrote tightly structured works within the baroque style and his music became more complex over time. Joplin worked the tightly structured rag style, developing and expanding it throughout his career. Both stylistically created music having melodies within melodies. These were two geniuses writing at the highest level and thus the idea for a recording pairing the music of both was born. Those people who heard William Appling play knew that his gifts as a pianist were equal to those as a conductor, teacher and mentor. This recording is a small sample of his genius.