• Catalog #: TROY0270

    Release Date: January 1, 1998
    Orchestral

    The Pulitzer Prize winning composer, George Walker, composed his Serenata for Chamber Orchestra for the Michigan Chamber Orchestra. It received its premiere in Detroit in October 1983. It received another performance by the New York Philharmonic in July 1984 on a Horizon's 94 concert. The Lyric for Strings was composed in 1946 and premiered that year by the student Orchestra of the Curtis Institute of Music conducted by Seymour Lipkin in a radio concert. It received another performance the following year by Richard Bales and the National Gallery Orchestra. The Poeme for Violin and Orchestra was premiered by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra with Cho-Liang Lin as violin soloist in 1991. It is a revised version of an earlier Violin Concerto. Orpheus for Chamber Orchestra was commissioned by the Cleveland Chamber Orchestra and was completed in 1994. It received its premiere in March 1995. Besides the Chamber Orchestra, it includes a part for narrator and singer. The Folk Songs for Orchestra were completed in the fall of 1990 and was premiered in May 1992 by the Baltimore Symphony under David Zinman. The composer describes his intention as "to set these melodies in an interesting way, in a respectful Orchestral manner. They are wonderful melodies. Four spirituals are quoted intact."

  • Catalog #: TROY0274

    Release Date: January 1, 1998
    Vocal

    Every label that specializes in American music, at one time or other, does an album devoted to the music of George Gershwin; trying to come up with a disc that is unusual and interesting is the challenge. As the title suggests, all the musicians on this album are friends; the instrumentalists are all members of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra. Just as George Gershwin was himself a product of diverse cultural influences, so his songs represent a variety of musical forms, styles and mediums. The collection on this disc spans the entire creative period of Gershwin's life, from The Real American Folk Song (written in 1918, and his first collaboration with his brother Ira) to the songs for the 1938 movie "The Goldwyn Follies," Love Walked In, I Love To Rhyme, and Our Love is Here to Stay, which were released after the composer's sudden death. Gershwin's friendships and alliances are evident in the songs as well. There are eight songs written for Fred Astaire and-or Ginger Rogers, two songs from the Broadway musical "Girl Crazy," (notable for the fact that the show was the Broadway debut of Ethel Merman and featured a pit Orchestra that included the likes of Glenn Miller, Jimmy Dorsey and Benny Goodman), and further selections which feature Linn Maxwell Keller with the musicians as well as the musicians alone.

  • Catalog #: TROY0261

    Release Date: February 1, 1998
    Vocal

    This album features René Fleming in what has to be one of her earliest recordings, if not the earliest. Renée Fleming received her M.M. degree from the Eastman School of Music. The music she sings on this recording was recorded in 1983, while she was still a student at Eastman. As well, the presence of the great Jan DeGaetani (1933-1989) makes this a special disc. For many years she taught at Eastman, as well as Aspen. Bruce MacCombie studied with among others, Wolfgang Fortner. For several years he taught composition at Yale University, and in the last decade he moved from teaching to administration, serving as Dean of the Juilliard School from 1986-92 and now as Dean of the School for the Arts at Boston University. Leaden Echo, Golden Echo is the setting of a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Sydney Hodkinson received his earliest training at Eastman under Louis Mennini and Bernard Rogers. He also studied with Carter, Sessions, Leslie Babbitt and Ross Lee Finney. He has been on the faculty of Eastman since 1973, teaching both composition and conducting. The Alte-Liebeslieder or "Old Fashioned Love Songs" are based on contemporary poems. Stanley Walden studied composition with Ben Weber and has been a faculty member at Juilliard, Sarah Lawrence College, and the State University of New York, College at Purchase. In addition to his Broadway Musical Oh! Calcutta, which has been produced throughout the world, he has written scores for film and dance.

  • Catalog #: TROY0281

    Release Date: February 1, 1998
    Instrumental

    This program features some of Haydn's earliest compositions, works that survive (in Christa Landon's words) only through "happy accident." Haydn himself felt no compunction to preserve his earliest efforts. When, in the last years of the 18th century, Breitkopf set about an authorized edition of Haydn's complete keyboard works (published 1800-1806), the composer, with a view towards posterity, expunged not only spurious works that had been published in his name, but also, as the preface explained, "those works of my early youth, which are not worth preserving." Those works that do survive from the 1750s and early 1760s are thus of particular interest, not simply as a measure of Haydn's subsequent development but also, as Landon remarks in the preface of her own complete edition of the composer's keyboard sonatas, because they possess "moments of such beauty that they should be kept alive by performance and not be allowed to fall into oblivion." Here on this new disc in Albany's continuing series devoted to the piano works of Haydn, you have the opportunity of hearing these early works for yourself and judging their value.

  • Catalog #: TROY0278

    Release Date: March 1, 1998
    Orchestral

    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."

  • Catalog #: TROY0279

    Release Date: March 1, 1998
    Instrumental

    The nine sonatas for solo piano by Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko (composed between 1957 and 1992) have attracted particular praise. "In the sonata genre, it may be that Tishchenko is well on his way to composing the most important body of works in Russia since Prokofiev," wrote Maurice Hinson in his Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire. He completed his Ninth Piano Sonata in 1992. The sonata exhibits the complexity characteristic of the last years of the 20th century. Internal links between the three movements, rather than any observance of Classical sonata form, bind the three movements together. Sergei Mikhailovich Slonimsky is the nephew of the famous Russian-American composer and lexicographer, Nicolas Slonimsky (1894-1994). For the entry on his nephew Sergei in Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Nicholas Slonimsky wrote: "(Sergei Slonimsky's) style of composition is in the tradition of Soviet modernism, evolving towards considerable complexity of texture and boldness of idiom."

  • Catalog #: TROY0280

    Release Date: March 1, 1998
    Wind Ensemble

    Anthony Iannaccone was born in New York City and studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Eastman School of Music. His principal teachers were Vittorio Giannini, Aaron Copland, and David Diamond. During the 1960's, he supported himself as a part-time teacher at the Manhattan School and Orchestral violinist. His catalogue of approximately fifty published works includes three symphonies, as well as smaller works for Orchestra, several large works for chorus and Orchestra, numerous Chamber pieces, and a variety of works for wind ensemble. Since 1971, he has taught at Eastern Michigan University, where he conducts the Collegium Musicum. Some sense of character and range of Iannaccone's music can be gleaned from a sampling of various descriptions given by authors and critics over the past three decades: "dark but never despairing.. intense lyricism with a distinct personality..." (Stereo Review); "...verdant, and always beautifully Orchestrated..." (The New York Times); "...the music's sonic diversity and ensembling of colors are masterful...(the reviewer) never failing to be enthralled by the insights of its argument and development..." (Fanfare). American music for wind band has been very popular recently and this disc should find a wide audience.

  • Catalog #: TROY0275

    Release Date: April 1, 1998
    Chamber

    Tom Myer is the Professor of Saxophone for the College of Music at the University of Colorado at Boulder and has served as the Director of Jazz Studies from 1988-95. He received his M.M. degree in woodwind performance and jazz studies from North Texas State University. He earned his undergraduate degree in music education from the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse. He has worked professionally for Woody Herman, Nelson Riddle, Ice Capades and Disney World, and has backed up such names as Dave Grusin, Doc Severinson, Bob Hope, Dionne Warwick and numerous others. Joseph Lukasik is on the music theory and jazz faculties at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In 1993, he received first prize in the Barlow International Composition Competition. Chris Theofanidis' Netherland was commissioned by Worldwide Concurrent Premieres and Commissioning Fund, as a consortium commission. There are two versions of the work, one for piano and one for Orchestra. David Gillingham is Professor of Music Composition at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.

  • Catalog #: TROY0282

    Release Date: April 1, 1998
    Chamber

    Irwin Bazelon died on August 2, 1995 at the age of 73. He composed nine symphonies and over 60 Orchestral, Chamber and instrumental pieces. Born in Evanston, Illinois, he graduated from DePaul University with a bachelor's and master's degree in music. After studying composition with Paul Hindemith at Yale briefly, he went to Mills College in Oakland, California with Darius Milhaud. From 1948 until his death, he lived in New York City and Sagaponack. His Long Island retreat was the perfect counterpoint for the tensions and hustle-bustle of urban life with which his rhythmically complex and often jazz-tinged music bristles. In his early years in New York, Bazelon supported himself by scoring documentaries, art films and theatrical productions. During the 1950's and 1960's he composed more than fifty scores of this kind, which proved to be an invaluable preparation for his Orchestral music. As a valedictory of sorts he wrote Knowing the Score: Notes on Film Music. Published in 1975, this book is widely used as a college text. As a guest composer Bazelon frequently lectured at leading universities and music schools throughout the United States and England. Young people were especially drawn to his feisty spirit and no-nonsense approach to earning a living by applying compositional talents to the commercial world without sacrificing integrity. A long-time horse racing enthusiast, one of his best known works, Churchill Downs (Chamber Concerto No. 2) is named for the home of the Kentucky Derby, and his ninth symphony (subtitled Sunday Silence for the winner of the 1989 Derby) is dedicated to the horse. Definitely an interesting man who gives us interesting music.

  • Catalog #: TROY0283

    Release Date: May 1, 1998
    Instrumental

    This compact disc presents keyboard masterpieces by five of our century's most acclaimed Jewish composers. The sampling of the rich and varied traditions of Jewish music seems especially appropriate as this is the 50th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. A somewhat mischievous note of caution creeps in, however, when one attempts to define precisely what "Jewish music" is. Apart from that which can be heard as either liturgical or folk, one faces an enormous gray area of diverse styles (often in the same work), national influences and musical personalities. All of which is to say that "Jewish music" is much more similar to than distinct from other music. This is especially true in America today as younger composers have shed much of their teacher's and their teacher's heritage. Jewish composers exhibit all the strengths and all the weaknesses found among all musicians as of all humanity. When describing great works of art of all styles or origins, massive or minuscule in scope, one is speaking in part of the "vision" of its creator. This is not a mystical term; rather it describes an overreaching personal statement which envelopes the work and, when combined with formal coherence, creates a sense of artistic truth. While this "vision" is common to all great art, the creator can cast his gaze in many different directions: upward towards the heavens; inward towards the mysteries of the self; outward towards the sights and sounds of the world; backward to the past or forward to the future. This sense of "Jewish music" is perhaps to be found here; while all art contains a vision, the Jewish vision is distinct in just what the artist, in this case the composer, sees and feels.

  • Catalog #: TROY0286

    Release Date: May 1, 1998
    Orchestral

    You are probably thinking, with the reputation of Albany Records for American music and composers, what are we doing introducing a series of recordings devoted to the music of Andrei Eshpai? The answer is simple. For the same reason we have so much of the English composer George Lloyd's music in our catalogue. He is a good composer who is under-represented in the catalogue as a whole. In short, we think his music is terrific and will appeal to a large audience if only they have a chance to hear it. So we are going to give you the chance. Besides, as with George Lloyd, here in Albany, we have had a special relationship with Mr. Eshpai. In February 1992, he was here in Albany when the Albany Symphony Orchestra performed his Concerto For Orchestra. From that time on, we have maintained close contact so much so that the master tapes from which this series of recordings will be drawn have been supplied to us directly by the Eshpai family. So, there will be many treasures to come. Andre Eshpai was born on May 15, 1925 in the ancient city of Kozmodemynsk on the Volga River in the autonomous republic of Mari of the RSFSR. His father, Yakov Andreevich Eshpai (1890-1963), was one of Mari's first professional composers. He was also a choral conductor, folklorist and educator. He composed the first Mari instrumental works, collected the folksongs of his region, and for many years was on the faculty of the Mari National Institute of Language, Literature and History in Ioshkar-Ola (the capital of the Mari Republic). The Eshpai home was a gathering place for many creative individuals - musicians, artists, writers and other intellectuals. It was in this enriching environment that Andrei grew up. In 1928 the family moved to Moscow where his father attended the Conservatory and his mother the Moscow Pedagogical Institute. Soon young Andrei began taking music lessons as well. He studied at Gnessin from 1934 to 1941. He served in the Soviet Army from 1943-1946. When he got out, he returned to the Moscow Conservatory where he studied the piano and composition with Miaskovsky and Orchestration with Nicolai Rakov. He graduated in 1953 and then entered the post graduate program with Aram Khachaturian. Today, he is the President of the Russian Author's Society (the equivalent of our ASCAP or BMI). The music of this fine composer should have a wide appeal.

  • Catalog #: TROY0289

    Release Date: May 1, 1998
    Instrumental

    Sigurd Rascher's influence on the development of a body of music suitable for performance by saxophonists is truly international. He is a man with a mission. For nearly fifty years he traveled the globe as a concert artist appearing as soloist with both major and provincial Orchestras, and as a recitalist in concert venues large and small. During his years as a frequent traveler, he was constantly on the lookout for promising young composers whom he encouraged to create fresh new works for the saxophone. These efforts have resulted in a large percentage of the best music yet composed for the instrument. In addition to encouraging the creation of original music for the saxophone, Rascher transcribed a number of preexisting compositions, both classical and traditional, so that they could be performed and enjoyed by saxophonists and their audiences. He did so much to establish the saxophone as a viable medium for serious artistic expression, and through his example and teaching encouraged numerous other saxophonists to continue on the same path he blazed. All of the music recorded on this disc has some association with the great man himself. Lawrence Gwozdz, a former student of Rascher, is Professor of Saxophone at the University of Southern Mississippi. He concertizes extensively throughout the United States and Europe.

  • Catalog #: TROY0284-85

    Release Date: June 1, 1998
    Opera

    Tobias Picker was born in New York City and studied at Juilliard, the Manhattan School of Music and Princeton University. When he was eighteen, he was pianist for the Martha Graham Dance Company. Recently, Picker has been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera to compose an opera that will have its premiere in the fall of 2002. He has also been commissioned by the BBC to compose a cello concerto to be premiered in the summer of 1999. He is currently completing Fantastic Mr. Fox, an opera based on Roald Dahl's classic story which was commissioned for the Los Angeles Opera and will premiere on December 9, 1998. For its 40th anniversary season in 1996, the Santa Fe Opera gave the world premiere performances of Picker's first opera Emmeline. The opera is inspired by Judith Rossner's novel about the true life story of Emmeline Mosher, a single mother forced to give up her baby son who unknowingly marries him twenty years later. Emmeline, which played to sold out houses, standing ovations and international critical acclaim, was nationally broadcast on PBS Great Performances in April 1997 and receives its New York premiere on March 31 at City Opera. Here are some of the comments the critics made about the Santa Fe performances of Emmeline. Heidi Waleson in the Wall Street Journal said: "This summer the Santa Fe Opera struck gold with the American premiere of Emmeline." Jamie James in The Times, London said: "Picker has written a sensational, satisfying first opera...Emmeline, in its world premiere at the Santa Fe Opera, is one of the most successful American operas in years." Hugh Canning in The Sunday Times, London said: "The unquestionable hit of the festival was Picker's Emmeline...accessible, exquisitely crafted, and it always serves the drama as both accompaniment and commentary. And what a drama!...A hugely enjoyable occasion that I would gladly relive." John J. O'Conner in The New York Times said: "Mr. Picker's score is ominously taut, punctuated with moving solos and duets...The production is stunningly spare. The singers are never less than impressive." It goes without saying that Albany Records feels privileged to release this magnificent work by one of America's finest composers. The added presence of Patricia Racette who has been winning rave reviews lately is an added bonus. The sound on the recording is superb because it has been especially remixed for audio from the original masters just for this CD release.

  • Catalog #: TROY0287

    Release Date: June 1, 1998
    Instrumental
  • Catalog #: TROY0288

    Release Date: June 1, 1998
    Chamber

    Dr. Harvey J. Stokes is professor of music at Hampton University, and founder and director of the Computer Music Laboratory. His degrees are from Michigan State University, the University of Georgia and East Carolina University. He writes about this music: "One of several pinnacles in my creative career has been the composition of a trilogy of works for the Oxford String Quartet. My String Quartet No. 1 was commissioned by this ensemble and completed during the fall of 1990 in Hampton, Virginia. Since its premiere in 1991, it has been performed many times by them to great acclaim. Due to the success of this work, I decided to dedicate two additional compositions to the Oxford String Quartet. String Quartet No. 2 and String Quartet No. 3 were completed in 1992 and 1995 respectively. String Quartet No. 3 was premiered in 1996 on a concert celebrating the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Oxford String Quartet, and String Quartet No. 2 was premiered later that year during a concert tour of Argentina by the ensemble." In the Oxford String Quartet innovation and tradition come together. The Cleveland Plain Dealer raves about "vibrant, spell- binding strings...first class from top to bottom...who interacted with a corporate sense of articulation, balance and nuance provided by only the most astute Chamber players."

  • Catalog #: TROY0273

    Release Date: July 1, 1998
    Chamber

    The real draw for this disc is the presence of the great trumpet player, Adolf Herseth from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. For indeed, he is one of a kind, a true master recognized for his brilliant musicianship by his colleagues and audiences the world over. "Quite possibly the most dazzling player on his instrument in the world today," says Donal Henahan in The New York Times. Mr. Herseth was appointed Principal Trumpet of the Chicago Symphony in 1948 immediately after graduating from the New England Conservatory. A native of Minnesota, he also holds a degree from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. During World War II he served as a bandsman at Iowa prefight school and ended his military service with the Commander of the Philippine Sea Frontier in the South Pacific. His years with the CSO have included numerous solo appearances and concerts with many of the world's finest conductors, not to mention work on some of the finest recorded performances in the repertoire. The Asbury Brass Quintet is based in Chicago. Mr. Herseth, who joins them in the performance of the Bohme Sextet, has touched the lives of each one of the members of the Quintet's players, either as a teacher, colleague or mentor.

  • Catalog #: TROY0295

    Release Date: July 1, 1998
    Choral

    Amy Beach was a member first of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Boston and later of St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church in New York. Early in the century, a movement had begun in Oxford to renew in the Anglican church the Catholic traditions of the ancient past. The Church restored the ancient practice of singing the liturgy for the services and designed the rituals of worship to express the awe and mystery of the Christian faith. Choirs proliferated and there was a great demand for new liturgical music and anthems. During the years of Beach's marriage to Dr. Henry Harris Aubrey Beach, her publisher issued 14 separate pieces, including most of the music contained on this wonderful CD. The origin of The Canticle of the Sun is interesting. In 1924, she went to the MacDowell Colony. Here, she came across the text of St. Francis of Assisi's Canticle of the Sun. In a 1943 interview published in The Etude, she told this story. "I took it up and read it over - and the only way I can describe what happened as that it jumped at me and struck me, most forcibly! As if from dictation, I jotted down the notes of my Canticle. In less than five days the entire work was done." The first performance of the work with Organ accompaniment took place on December 8, 1928 at St. Bartholomew's in New York. The Toledo Choral Society, performing with the Chicago Symphony, gave the premiere of The Canticle with Orchestra on May 13, 1930. "The Canticle of the Sun by Mrs. H.H. A. Beach proved the sensation of the evening. This biblical hymn of praise and jubilation, set in a glorious musical expression of majestic melody... literally brought the audience to its feet in a desire to honor the composer."

  • Catalog #: TROY0290

    Release Date: July 21, 1998
    Vocal

    The Right Honourable Sir Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners in the peerage of England, and a baronet, was born on September 18, 1883 at Apley Park, near Bridgnorth, Shropshire. Educated at Eton, and later in Dresden, Vienna, France and Italy, mainly in pursuit of knowledge of languages to equip him for the diplomatic service, he succeeded his uncle in 1918, assuming the additional name of Wilson by Royal Charter a year later. He served as honorary attaché in Constantinople and later in Rome, but on his elevation relinquished theses posts, returning to England and his inheritance, several country estates, and lived the rest of his life, ostensibly, as a country gentleman. This, however, was only on the surface. He was a man whose music drew the highest praise from Stravinsky, and whose no inconsiderable literary and painting skills were to make him "the versatile peer" in the national press, but it was as a composer that he wished to be remembered. Berners' musical output was small by most standards and the case if often made that if he had had to earn a living from the arts he would have produced more. This is debatable. Less in doubt is that his art was well appreciated among his fellow artists - and aristocrats. Osbert Sitwell summed it up by writing that "...in the years between the wars he did more to civilize the wealthy than anyone in England. Through London's darkest drawing-rooms, as well as lightest, he moved ... a sort of missionary of arts."

  • Catalog #: TROY0291

    Release Date: August 1, 1998
    Instrumental

    Pantcho Vladigerov has justifiably earned the symbolic title of Grand Master of the Bulgarian school of composing. It fell upon Vladigerov to become the first recognized representative and brilliant herald of the young Bulgarian art of composing that was trying to find its own place in the world of music after 500 years of being yoked by the Ottoman Empire. His enormous gift and the wide spectrum of his creations gave Bulgarian music what the other great musical nations took pride in long before his star began to rise. Vladigerov, known in the West as the teacher of Alexis Weissenberg, was a composer-pianist with electrifying technique, dazzling energy, and driving spirit. Pantcho Vladigerov's mother was a medical doctor and was related to Boris Pasternak and his father was a lawyer. In 1912, he was sent, with his brother to Berlin where he studied with Paul Juon. He also studied piano with Heinrich Bart who was a pupil of Franz Liszt. At fifteen Pantcho entered the School of Music. In 1918, he composed his first piano concerto for the Russian pianist Leonid Kreutzer. The performance of this work brought him recognition. In 1932 he returned to Bulgaria where he became Professor of Piano, Chamber Music and Composition at the Academy of Music in Sofia. For the next forty years he concertized, composed and made recordings. He died in 1978 at the age of 79. Alexander Vladigerov studied composition and piano with his father as well as conducting with Nathan Rachlin in Kiev. He was ferociously promoting George Gershwin and American jazz in Bulgaria at a time when such artists were persecuted by the Communists for similar activities.

  • Catalog #: TROY0294

    Release Date: August 1, 1998
    Wind Ensemble

    For many years, here at Albany Records, we have had the idea of doing a recording of American music that would tie in to horse racing - specifically the August season at Saratoga. Thoroughbred Thunder is the result and it has an appeal and charm well beyond its initial idea. Obviously, all of the selections have something to do with horses and racing, so any place that has a race track, or a racing audience will find this disc most entertaining. It should be a best seller, not only at Saratoga, but at Churchill Downs, Belmont and any other place there is a track. What about the music? It does sound like what you would hear at a circus. It has a jolly, albeit, repetitive nature to it, but this will only make the disc appeal to a wide variety of listeners: the listener for whom the composers on this disc they have only read about, never having heard a note of their music to the listener who is looking for something just as entertaining and charming as the title suggests.

  • Catalog #: TROY0299

    Release Date: August 1, 1998
    Instrumental

    The Argentine pianist Mirian Conti enjoys a growing reputation as a musician. Stylistically assured in a wide range of repertoire, Ms. Conti is considered a leading exponent of Spanish music; and her rare ability to communicate passion and excitement when playing contemporary scores has won the admiration of many leading American and Argentine composers, including those included on this disc. She began her musical education in Buenos Aires and completed it at Juilliard in New York. Morton Gould's Pieces of China could best be described as an American's impressions of China. They were first performed in Madison Square Garden for an international event. Volumes 1 and 2 of Persichetti's Poems for Piano were composed in 1947 and the third volume in 1981. The titles of each of the sixteen character pieces are drawn from single lines of various poems, each piece reflects the single line of poetry rather than the poem as a whole. These lines are printed in the booklet. It is most interesting to note that David Diamond was so impressed with Mirian Conti's playing when he heard her at Juilliard that he dedicated his Sonatina No. 2 to her. His earlier Sonatina No. 1 was dedicated to the poet Alfred Kreymborg. Poems of the Sea is one of Ernst Bloch's most often performed piano pieces. A very impressionistic piece, the three movements are: "Waves," "Chanty," and "At Sea."

  • Catalog #: TROY0293

    Release Date: September 1, 1998
    Instrumental

    This disc contains three wonderful American works for piano, two of which, the Converse and the Oldberg, are receiving their world premiere performances here. The least known figure on the disc has to be Arne Oldberg. Who was he? He was the teacher of Howard Hanson for starters. He was born and lived in the Chicago area. His father, Oscar Oldberg, founded in 1886 and was the first Dean of the School of Pharmacy at Northwestern University. His son, Dr. Eric Oldberg, became President of both of the Chicago Board of Health and the Orchestral Association, the governing body of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Arne was appointed Professor of Music at Northwestern University in 1899, and later Dean of the graduate school, a position he held until he retired in 1941. Mary Louise Boehm writes: "I met Mr. Oldberg after he had retired. I premiered his Third Piano Concerto with the Chicago Civic Orchestra. Oldberg himself played for me his Piano Sonata which is recorded here. He also coached me, explaining his ideas about the piece to me." Frederick Shepherd Converse never had to worry about money as he was born into a prominent Boston family. He studied with John Knowles Paine at Harvard and also George Whitefield Chadwick. In 1896, he went to Munich where he studied with Joseph Rheinberger. For awhile, he taught at the New England Conservatory and Harvard, but he soon retired to his estate in Westwood, Massachusetts, near Boston, where he lived the rest of his life. Nothing much needs to be said as way of introduction for Amy Beach except to say that Mary Louise Boehm is an expert in the performance of her music. Her recording of the Beach Piano Concerto is still considered definitive.

  • Catalog #: TROY0296

    Release Date: September 1, 1998
    Orchestral

    City Upon a Hill and Inscriptions at the City of Brass are both for Chorus and Orchestra. City Upon a Hill was commissioned by the Boston Winterfest of 1965 where it received a terrible performance. Ten years later during the Bicentennial celebrations it was performed with the Portland Youth Orchestra and the Governor of Oregon as the speaker. The reviewer for the Portland Oregonian called it a work of "moving beauty." Inscriptions At the City of Brass was premiered by the Schola Cantorum of New York under Hugh Ross, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1957, with Vera Zorina as Sheherezad. Avshalomov began work on his Symphony: The Oregon in Portland in 1960 and it was completed there in 1962. Between these dates much of the music was written in Munich where the composer was on sabbatical. The premiere was given by the Portland Youth Symphony. On this disc we hear only the third and fourth movements. Up at Timberline has an unusual history. It was commissioned by the Friends of Timberline to note the Lodge's 50th anniversary. Situated on the slopes of magnificent Mt. Hood, the Lodge is one of the most enduring projects of the WPA (Works Progress Administration). It was dedicated in 1937 by President Roosevelt. It was premiered in 1987 at the Lodge.

  • Catalog #: TROY0297

    Release Date: September 1, 1998
    Chamber

    Marion Bauer and Ruth Crawford Seeger began their life-long friendship in the summer of 1929, when both enjoyed privileged living at the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire - a haven for American artists since 1907. At a time when women in music had to face down Victorian stereotypes of dilettantism and sentimentality, the MacDowell Colony provided "a room of one's own." A Peterborough regular, Bauer came for her first visit in 1917. Within two days of arriving for what would be her only stay there, Crawford wrote how it was "glorious to be working again...I never knew the moon and stars could come inside me so." Considering their historical reputations, few people would suspect the meeting points between these two composers - Bauer, representing what Carol Oja in her forthcoming book calls the "forgotten vanguard," and Crawford, known today as a pivotal figure in the radical "ultra-modern" movement. But back then, both believed strongly in the manifest destiny of a similar kind of modernism: both spent the 1920s exploring frontiers of harmony; both greatly admired Scriabin, taking his mystical impressionism as their starting point; and both were influenced by transcendentalist aesthetics. After hearing some of Bauer's piano preludes, Crawford recorded her impressions in her diary: "I am bewildered by the strangeness of the experience, by our affinities. Our manner of building, our feeling very strongly the spirit of our work, our strengths and weaknesses - in all these, though we are individuals, yet we are very close. Though we have only just met, yet our spirits have been friends for years." And now their musics are joined on this beautifully performed new disc. There is no greater proponent of this music than Virginia Eskin, a proven, superb American artist.

  • Catalog #: TROY0298

    Release Date: September 1, 1998
    Orchestral

    Ronald Perera is Professor of Music at Smith College. He studied with Leon Kirchner, Randall Thompson and Mario Davidovsky. His Music for Flute and Orchestra was composed for William Wittig who performs it on this disc and who is also the principal flute (since 1970) of the Springfield, Mass. Symphony Orchestra. Howie Smith is a virtuoso saxophonist, composer and jazz musician. As a performer he has worked with everyone from Aretha Franklin and Elvis Presley to Luciano Berio and John Cage. About his Song for the Children he writes: "It is a song for the children of Argentina, El Salvador, Lebanon, Nicaragua, South Africa, and so many other places where they seem to have been forgotten." The work is scored for alto saxophone and WX7 MIDI Wind Controller, strings, 2 DX synthesizers and a pipe Organ. The Italian title of Edwin London's one movement work una novella della sera primavera translates as "A novel of the spring evening." The solo oboe is the central character in the "novel." In a further whimsical program note the composer suggests that his "music novel" might be construed as "the make-believe quintessence of oboe (a rebel dude) coming forward from ashes (a rubble deed!) to meet the challenge offered by anthropomorphic dialectics: vicissitudes in search of a character. A double read? Why not." In The London Financial Times Andrew Porter called John Eaton "the most interesting opera composer writing in America today." Eaton's Songs of Desperation and Comfort were composed during a residency the composer spent in the Villa Serbelloni at Bellagio, Italy. The premiere of this music by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony was the 100th world premiere composition presented by this Organization. It is scored for mezzo-soprano and Chamber Orchestra.

  • Catalog #: TROY0300

    Release Date: September 1, 1998
    Orchestral

    It is the intention of this disc to change dramatically music lover’s opinions of the American composer Morton Gould. For those who know him as the composer of “light” music; American Salute, The American Symphonette, The Latin-American Symphonette, or as an arranger of other composer’s music, or just as a fine conductor – get ready. There is no doubt in this listener’s mind that StringMusic ranks with the greatest string music written in this century and yes I am including Elgar, Vaughan-Williams and Britten. In fact StringMusic is a masterpiece, richly deserving of the Pulitzer Prize for music it won in 1995. And the Piano Concerto composed when he was just in his early twenties. Sure, there are hints of Shostakovich, but the music is Gould, right from the start, all Gould. Showpiece was commissioned by Columbia Records. It was intended to show off the modern Orchestra and how well it could be captured in recording with the best of the Columbia engineers’ talent. And while Ormandy and the Philadelphia, for whom the work was written, recorded it, the work was never approved for release. David Alan Miller feels it was because the music is so fiendishly difficult. The Orchestra simply did not have enough rehearsal time. This disc should find a audience because none of the works has ever been available before in any format.

  • Catalog #: TROY0240

    Release Date: October 1, 1998
    Vocal

    Henry Cowell wrote songs for the half century spanning 1914-1964. They constitute a central part of his compositional profile and there are more than 180 of them out of his 966 known compositions. His songs are a vital, if sadly unknown, part of the rich history which is the American art song and in them, Cowell used some of his most forward looking and experimental ideas. His songs clearly delineate the several periods of his stylistic evolution - the naive, youthful works, the early avant-garde and "ultra modernist" works, the folk and modally-influenced music, and the late works which synthesize all these earlier styles. Most of Cowell's songs, however, have remained under-performed and virtually unknown, for they exist only as manuscripts in the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library. To date only sixteen of Cowell's songs for voice and piano have been published. During his lifetime, his songs were premiered by many of the finest singers of the day including Roland Hayes, Eva Gauthier, Radiana Pazmor, Charles Holland and Theodor Uppman. Most often, he composed single songs but there are a few exceptions including the sets by Catherine Riegger, Mother Goose, Padraic Colum and Langston Hughes recorded here. As editor for many years of the ground-breaking New Music Editions, Cowell selflessly advanced the songs of many other composers including Ives, Copland, Charles Seeger, Vivian Fine, Paul Bowles, Elie Siegmeister, Ernst Bacon, Leo Ornstein, Otto Luening and Ben Weber. In all this time, he only published two of his own songs.

  • Catalog #: TROY0304

    Release Date: October 1, 1998
    Orchestral

    As founder and president (1974-1995) of Meet The Composer, an Organization dedicated to the creation, performance, and recording of music by American composers, John Duffy initiated countless programs to advance American music and to aid American composers. But there is another side to John Duffy. He has composed more than 300 works for symphony Orchestra, theater, television and film. He grew up in the Bronx, one of 14 children of Irish immigrant parents. He studied with Copland, Cowell, Dallapiccola and Solomon Rosowsky whom he credits with insisting uncompromisingly on learning the craft of music composition and developing the discipline and patience necessary to the art. The Heritage music on this disc is a reissue of the music on the old ASV disc which has been long unavailable. The performance of the Symphony No. 1 is a new one and is different from the one that appears on Koss Classics. Heritage, Fanfare and Chorale, Heritage Suite for Orchestra and Heritage Symphonic Dances have all been drawn by Mr. Duffy from the score he composed for the nine-hour PBS series Heritage: Civilization and the Jews. This wonderful, stirring music earned for Mr. Duffy an Emmy. The Chicago Tribune called the music "haunting, memorable and brilliant." The Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club, Gibbs Smith, president, commissioned Symphony No. 1 in order to draw attention to the endangered, pristine wilderness lands of southern Utah. The score is dedicated to Mr. Smith and the Sierra Club. The Symphony was premiered by Paul Connelly and the Orchestra of St. Luke's at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City on November 29, 1989. Mr. Duffy's tuneful, energetic music should find a large and welcome audience.

  • Catalog #: TROY0313

    Release Date: October 1, 1998
    Opera

    The Kona Coffee Cantata originated, appropriately enough, over coffee and conversation in 1981 between composer Jerre Tanner and Christine Jones, a classical music lover and co-owner of The Coffee Cantata, a coffee shop in Kailua-Kona on Hawaii Island. Jones suggested that Tanner write a companion piece to Bach's Coffee Cantata. Tanner and his librettist agreed to create a Baroque Hawaiian Style for the new work. Says Tanner: "We would combine Baroque musical traditions with Hawaiian musical traditions as seamlessly as possible looking for a common ground between the two so that our audience would accept this cross-cultural hybrid." The listener can hear recitativo secco, arias with instrumental obbligatos, cabalettas displaying vocal pyrotechnics, fugues, chorale preludes, florid ornamentation and those sturdy Baroque walking bass lines. On the Hawaiian side, there are hints of ancient chant and hula rhythms sounded by the ipu hula - a traditional drum-like instrument used for the dance. The rest of the Orchestra is made up of strings, flute and basso continuo, the same instrumentation as Bach's Coffee Cantata. As well, just like the Bach work, Tanner's Cantata uses three characters sung by a soprano, tenor and bass. The work received its premiere in a somewhat abbreviated version by the Uptown Opera at Lindaman's Gourmet-to-Go Restaurant in Spokane, Washington on November 13, 1986. Jerre Tanner is the composer of Boy With Goldfish which is also available on Albany TROY353.

  • Catalog #: TROY0307

    Release Date: November 1, 1998
    Choral

    CONCORA - Connecticut Choral Artists, was founded in 1974 by Richard M. Coffey. CONCORA'S mission is to "perpetuate and perform with excellence choral music of the highest quality for the broadest possible audience." Since its founding, the all-professional chorus has built an extraordinary reputation for artistic excellence throughout New England. Mr. Coffey writes: "The challenge in preparing a recording of choral works of Ned Rorem is not in the selection of what to include but in the perverse necessity of selecting what to omit. For over a year I pored over Rorem scores, both published and unpublished, corresponded with the composer who had a few modestly proffered suggestions, and sat at the piano for many a happy hour playing and singing a treasury of anthems, canticles, motets, choral hymns, and choral songs. For every work presented here there is another, equally beautiful, awaiting its turn before the microphone. Ned Rorem's love for words is manifest well beyond his popular diaries and prose. He selects great texts and then wraps them in fine melodies, tunes which ennoble and illuminate. After only a few listenings to Love Divine or Come, Pure Hearts one may be tempted (don't resist) to whistle and hum them quite spontaneously. This disc is presented as a tribute to Ned Rorem on the occasion of his 75th birthday (October 23, 1998). The music in this collection is an eclectic grouping of works dating from 1955 through 1988 including pieces for a cappella choir, as well as others accompanied by Organ or piano, with texts (both prose and poetry) from religious, scriptural, and secular sources."

  • Catalog #: TROY0308

    Release Date: November 1, 1998
    Orchestral

    Alison Young, the flutist on this recording, writes: "Two years ago, conductor Charles Anthony Johnson approached me with the idea of producing a recording of flute concertos together. We decided to concentrate on American music, exploring new territory by locating works that had never been recorded or were currently unavailable on CD. Our decision to record the particular four works on this recording was based on the music's unique American characteristics, defined by their compelling individualism. They are products of this century, but their composers chose to use more traditional styles, utilizing familiar rhythmic patterns and tuneful melodies. It was a sad discovery for us that these exceptional pieces were not only unavailable on recordings, but had also seen little performance exposure. As I began studying and practicing, I realized that this was a great injustice to the composers themselves as well as a loss to musical audiences. The four works on this CD represent some of the finest flute music written in this country." Alison Young graduated with a Master of Music degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music. She also holds a degree from the University of Southern California. Currently Principal Flute of the Houston Ballet Orchestra, she has performed and recorded as Principal Flute of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Grand Opera, and the Memphis and Toledo Symphonies.

  • Catalog #: TROY0312

    Release Date: November 1, 1998
    Orchestral

    James Kimo Williams is a versatile composer who has written both serious and commercial works. He is a faculty member of Columbia College in Chicago and writes the following: "Fanfare for Life was commissioned by AT&T and premiered May 6, 1994 by the Chicago Sinfonietta at Orchestra Hall in Chicago under the baton of Paul Freeman. I composed this work in direct response to the outgrowth of gang violence during that same year." Richard J. Rendleman, Jr. was born in 1949 in Salisbury, North Carolina and holds a Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he currently serves as Professor of Finance. At age 32, he began studying with the Pulitzer Prize winning composer, Robert Ward. As a result has written a number of works for piano, chorus, Chamber ensemble and Orchestra. "October 9, 1943 serves as the second movement of my First Symphony, completed in 1997. The music is based on a poem of the same title by my grandfather's cousin, Margaret Proctor Wood. The Chamber version of Runagate, Runagate was first performed at the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta in 1990. Subsequently, the Orchestral version was premiered by the Savannah Symphony in 1994 with William Brown for whom the work was written. Wendel Logan is on the faculty of Oberlin College. "The text and title of my composition are based on Robert Hayden's collage poem "Runagate, Runagate," which was taken from the collection Angle of Ascent (1975). Richard Yardumian's (1917-1985) Chorale-Prelude Veni, Sancte Spiritus was premiered by Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra on April 3, 1959 and performed over 100 times during his tenure. Peter Saltzman has written extensively for dance and theatre groups as well as for Orchestra. He is very active in the Chicago musical scene and writes the following: "I wrote Walls during a three week period in December, 1995 and January, 1996. It was commissioned by Kevin Iega Jeff, choreographer of the Dallas Black Dance Theatre, which premiered a synthesized version of the work in February, 1996."