Catalog

All the music on this disc was originally created, performed and recorded for "Dogs of Desire," the new music ensemble of the Albany Symphony Orchestra. Richard Adams, Arthur Bloom, Evan Chambers and John Fitz Rogers are all young composers at the beginning of their careers. Give them a listen! See if you enjoy what they are doing. Kamran Ince is a composer who has been long associated with the Albany Symphony. There is a disc of his symphonic works and piano concerto that has been out on Argo for quite some time, not to mention the disc of his Chamber music that is available on Albany. All compositions on this disc were recorded in the wonderful Troy Savings Bank Music Hall and after they were performed before subscription audiences. This means they are beautifully played by the orchestra.

A largely self-taught composer, Byron Richard O'Keefe takes his inspiration from the American countryside, particularly its rivers. An American Smetana, in the sense that his music evokes the rivers, hedgerows, and forests of the eastern United States, O'Keefe's compositions can be characterized as neo-pastoral Romanticism.

The 21st Century Consort, founded in 1975, performs an annual concert series at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Under the direction of its founder and conductor, Christopher Kendall, the Consort's artists include principal players from the National Symphony Orchestra, along with other prominent chamber musicians from the Washington, DC area. In addition to its history of touring, broadcasts and recordings, the Consort's four decades of performances have been recorded live and comprise a growing archive of contemporary music. For this recording, they have chosen three major works, two of which (Christopher Patton's Out of Darkness and James Primosch's Sacred Songs and Meditations) were commissioned by the 21st Century Consort. Stephen Albert's music has long been championed by the 21st Century Consort so the inclusion of his Cathedral Music on this recording is especially fitting.

Composer Charles Bestor received his musical training under Paul Hindemith, Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin and Vladiir Ussachevsky. His long career has included numerous awards and commissions and recordings of his music appear on Albany Records, Capstone, Centaur, New Ariel, Serenus, Orion and MSR Classics. He has pursued a parallel career as a teacher and administrator and served on the faculty and administration of the Juilliard School, Wilamette University and the Universities of Massachusetts, Utah and Alabama. He is presently Professor of Composition Emeritus and Director of the Electronic and Computer Music Studios of the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. This recording is the first devoted to his orchestral works. Two works on the recording (Requiem and The Long Goodbye) are the composer's attempt to generalize a private personal loss.

The Massachusetts Wind Orchestra was founded in 1991 by Music Director, Malcolm W. Rowell, Jr., and has captured the attention and participation of some 140 outstanding musicians from throughout the East. This ensemble is now recognized as one of the finest professional ensembles of its kind in the United States. The Massachusetts Wind Orchestra provides quality musical experiences to wind, brass and percussion musicians. Its personnel are professional musicians , educators and freelancers who have trained at many of America's leading conservatories, colleges and universities. The ensemble offers a unique opportunity to experience and explore traditional and contemporary wind music while aspiring to the highest musical standards. It provides an avenue of professional growth for its membership, and its innovative programming honors the heritage of bands while advancing the medium into the 21st century through commissions, premieres and recordings. On September 21, 1997, at Tanglewood's Ozawa Hall, the Massachusetts Wind Orchestra presented the first wind band concert ever heard at Tanglewood.

Christopher Rouse was one of America’s most prominent composers. Winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize in Music, he created a body of work perhaps unequalled in its emotional intensity. Three of his concertos — for trumpet, oboe, and bassoon — are included in this recording. Eric Berlin is principal trumpet of the Albany Symphony and assistant principal trumpet of the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra. He has commissioned, premiered, and recorded numerous new works for trumpet. Katherine Needleman is principal oboist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and has appeared as a soloist with orchestras around the U.S. Peter Kolkay is the only bassoonist to receive an Avery Fisher Career Grant. In demand as a chamber musician, recitalist, and soloist with orchestras, he is on the faculty at Vanderbilt. The Albany Symphony, led by conductor David Alan Miller, has received four Grammy nominations and is both a 2014 and 2021 Grammy award winner.

Brian Fennelly is Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Arts and Science at New York University, where he taught from 1968 to 1997. Following a degree in engineering from Union College, he studied music at Yale with Mel Powell, Donald Martino, Gunther Schuller and George Perle. The five works recorded on this CD cover a 21 year period in the creative life of the composer. Among the consistent, remarkable features of Fennelly's orchestral works from these years - the elements which define his distinctive compositional voice are the abundant paradoxical tendencies: steadfast resistance to fashion, coupled with frequent signs of his awareness of contemporary compositional trends; nearly obsessive dedication to formal transparency, coupled sometimes with impressionistic, sensuous orchestral textures and the masking of structural divisions; strong goal orientation through progressions of phrases leading to powerful climaxes, coupled often with rhapsodic passages of a seemingly static nature; pitch organization clearly derived from dodecaphonic or hexachordal procedures, coupled frequently with motives and harmonies selected for their apparent non-serial associations (suggestive of, but not operating functionally in, traditional tonality or modality). This album reveals Brian Fennelly as a craftsman of sober, weighty music built to stand objectively, i.e. by the strength of its own content and architecture.

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.

If you are looking for a disc of all WORLD PREMIERE performances of some very appealing American music, this is the disc for you. Wendell Logan is a composer and saxophonist who was educated at Florida A & M University, the American Conservatory, Southern Illinois University and the University of Iowa. He is presently chairman of the department of jazz studies at Oberlin Conservatory. Roots, Branches, Shapes and Shades (of Green) was commissioned by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and first performed by them in February, 1991. It was composed for the pianist Neal Creque. Thomas Jefferson Anderson is Fletcher Professor of Music Emeritus at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. He holds degrees from West Virginia State University, Penn State and the University of Iowa. He studied with Scott Huston, Philip Bezanson and Darius Milhaud. Chamber Concerto (Remembrances) was commissioned by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and premiered in 1988. Leroy Jenkins is a virtuoso violinist, composer, arranger and educator. Born in Chicago, he earned a music degree at Florida A & M University and studied Baroque and classical masters while also developing an interest in improvised music. Under the spell of jazz greats like Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane he returned to Chicago and became a charter member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, an Organization in which he is still active. Wonder Lust was commissioned by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony and premiered by them in 1988. Dolores White, composer, pianist, and educator, is assistant professor of music at Cuyahoga Community College. She received a bachelor's degree in piano performance from the Oberlin Conservatory and a masters in piano performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music. Her Crystal Gazing was commissioned and premiered by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony in 1994. In the composer's words its single movement explores "the world of crystal making, crystal gazing and the psychic state of mind while crystal gazing." David Baker was born in Indianapolis. He is now professor of music and chairman of the jazz department at Indiana University in Bloomington. He is a virtuoso performer as well as teacher. He received bachelor's and master's degrees from Indiana University. His teachers have included J.J. Johnson, Janos Starker, William Russo, Bernard Heiden and Gunther Schuller. His piece Parallel Planes was also commissioned and premiered by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony.

Michael Horvit is a Professor at the University of Houston Moores School of Music, where he has headed the Theory and Composition Department since 1967. For 25 years he served as Music Director at Congregation Emanu El, Houston. During his studies at Yale University, Tanglewood, Harvard and Boston University, his composition teachers were Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss, Walter Piston, Quincy Porter and Gardner Read. The Cullen Overture was commissioned by the University of Houston for the rededication of the Cullen Performance Hall in October 1988. The Concerto for Brass and Orchestra was commissioned by Richard Frazier for the Chicago Chamber Brass. The Invocation and Exultation was commissioned by the Missouri Unit of the American String Teachers Association in commemoration of the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death and was premiered in January, 1991. There are several references to Mozart's music in the piece. Aleinu was commissioned by Congregation Emanu El, Houston, in 1985, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the ordination of Rabbi Robert I. Kahn. The prayer itself is one of the most important and ancient in the Jewish liturgy - a heartfelt expression of belief in God. Daughters of Jerusalem was also commissioned by Congregation Emanu El. It was dedicated to Fredell Lack who gave it the premiere on February 25, 1996. It is titled a fantasy because it does not follow the usual plan of a concerto, but rather draws its inspiration and meaning from several poems taken from The Songs of Songs. Mr. Horvit's style is in the tradition of the American romantic sound.

The Albany Symphony, conducted by David Alan Miller, performs two world premiere recordings of works by the distinguished and original composer, David Del Tredici. Pop-Pourri is the very first piece in Del Tredici's legendary "Alice" series and is scored for orchestra, soprano, rock band, and chorus. Adventures in Wonderland includes The Pool of Tears and The Mouse's Tale, which are connected with narration, sketching the events occurring in between. Hila Plitman, the soprano soloist is a Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and actress. The Albany Symphony is legendary for its commitment to American music. Conductor David Alan Miller is one of the leading American conductors of his generation. He and the Albany Symphony are the recipients of two Grammy awards.

Born in 1943, David Maslanka studied composition at Oberlin and received his graduate degrees from Michigan State University where his teacher and mentor was H. Owen Reed. He has served on the faculties of the State University of New York at Geneseo, Sarah Lawrence College, and Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York. He now lives in Missoula, Montana. Maslanka has written nearly 30 major works for wind ensemble, among them five symphonies, nine concertos, a Mass, and a large variety of concert pieces. Four of the five works on this recording are world premier recordings, the one exception being Symphony No. 4, which appears on another Albany Records recording (TROY503). The Concerto for Piano, Winds and Percussion (1974-76) was Maslanka's first work for wind ensemble. The work received its premiere three years later by the Eastman Wind Ensemble conducted by Frederick Fennell. According to Maslanka, "That fine first performance opened the door to my long and happy career of writing for winds." Concerto No. 2 for Piano, Winds, and Percussion is in five movements - each one songlike with a programmatic backdrop. Maslanka says of Testament: "A testament is a statement of belief, in this case in the power of music to harmonize and to heal. Testament was written in response to the events of September 11. Out of the initial stunned confusion has come my firm conviction that making music is now more important than ever." Traveler was written in 2003 to commemorate the career of Ray Lichtenwalter, the Director of Bands at the University of Texas at Arlington. It is based on the chorale melody Nicht so traurig, nicht so sehr ("Not so sad, not so much.") According to Maslanka, "The roots of Symphony No. 4 are many. The central driving force is the spontaneous rise of the impulse to shout for the joy of life..." Albany Records is proud to continue its commitment to the extraordinary music of David Maslanka. Our catalog now boasts 17 recordings of his works. For the complete listing go to www.albanyrecords.com.

Conductor Stephen K. Steele comments that David Maslanka's A Child's Garden of Dreams provided bookends for his tenure as conductor of the Illinois State University Wind Ensemble — it was both the first work he conducted by Maslanka performed there in 1989 and the last before his retirement in 2012. Steele's championing of Maslanka's music for wind ensemble is truly impressive. He and the Illinois State University Wind Ensemble commissioned four symphonies and have made more than a dozen recordings for Albany Records that feature his music. They have made an unequaled contribution to the body of music for wind ensemble through their commissioning, performing and recording of this extraordinary composer's work. Coupled with the much-loved work, A Child's Garden of Dreams is a concerto for two horns and wind ensemble -- Sea Dreams, a work inspired by Maslanka's interest with Moby Dick, his boyhood in New Bedford, Massachusetts and his on meditations on the sea.

The much anticipated world premiere recording of David Maslanka's Symphony No. 9 is a large collection of instrumental songs. There are many influences and underlying elements at work including time (memory, passing of time); water (cleansing and life-giving power); nature (river, ocean); and grace (compassion, forgiveness, rest). Each movement embodies one or more chorale melodies or other songs, such as Shall We Gather at the River and O Sacred Head Now Wounded. Born in Massachusetts in 1943, David Maslanka attended Oberlin, the Mozarteum in Salzburg and Michigan State University. His works for wind ensemble have become especially well known and popular with both performers and audiences. Symphony No. 9, indeed a masterpiece, will be universally welcomed.

Robert Xavier Rodriguez has been called "one of the major American composers of his generation" (Texas Monthly), and his music has been described as "richly lyrical" by Musical America. He first gained international recognition in 1971 when he was awarded the Prix de Composition Musicale Prince Pierre de Monaco. Other honors include the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has served as Composer-in-Residence with both the San Antonio and Dallas symphonies, and he is on the faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas. This recording includes the world premiere of Rodríguez' De Rerum Natura from a live performance inaugurating the new Edith O'Donnell Arts & Technology Building at UT Dallas. Commissioned by the university for this occasion, De Rerum Natura is a 27-minute tone poem based on the Latin poem by Roman poet Lucretius. The young violinist Chloé Trevor is featured in the Mozart Violin Concerto. A rising star on today's international violin scene, Trevor has won prizes at numerous competitions and been a featured soloist at venues such as Avery Fisher Hall and the Young Prague Festival.

Conductor Andrew Koehler comments that Steven Holochwost’s compositional language is almost always informed through conversations with the past and though he does not shy away from sonorous climax, his music tends toward a mode of expression that favors the quiet and reflective. Holochwost studied composition at Yale and Rutgers, earning his doctorate under the tutelage of Charles Wuorinen. Holochwost has received grants, awards, and fellowships from Rutgers, Princeton, the National Association of Composers, the Fisher Foundation, and ASCAP. He also has a PhD in developmental psychology. This is his second recording for Albany Records. Currently the music director of the Kalamazoo Philharmonia, Andrew Koehler has been honored for his innovative and thoughtful programming. He is active as a guest conductor in the U.S. and throughout the world.

First: have you noticed how certain works, musical or visual, have an uncanny knack for perfectly evoking the period when they were created? That's one of the distinguishing features of the wonderful music on this new disc. The Symphony No. 6 sounds exactly like the late 1940's, much the same way that classic post-war movies conjure that period. In fact, the Symphony No.6 might be the most cinematic of all of Gillis' works in that form, with a wonderful sense of tension in the first movement that would be right at home on the soundtrack of The Big Sleep or This Gun for Hire. The second movement is full of excitement, like a modern analog to the scherzo of the Mendelssohn Scotch Symphony. The bluesiness of the third movement recalls Gershwin at his most relaxed, and the boisterous final movement with its cushy harmonies proves that Gillis had a lot in common with the great Broadway and Hollywood arrangers. The Symphony No.5 is probably the most "serious" of his symphonic output, reflecting the mood of the immediate postwar era. This contains one of his most beautiful slow movements (and if you're an ongoing fan of this series, you know how effective his quiet moments are); the keening sense of nostalgia often bears a striking resemblance to Bernard Herrmann (think in terms of his scores for The Devil and Daniel Webster or The Ghost and Mrs. Muir). The strictly "fun" piece of the collection is the Paul Bunyan Overture, full of rollicking spirits but, again, with a more contemplative sound. All of this is performed with the greatest enthusiasm and color by the Sinfonia Varsovia and Ian Hobson. An absolute must!

Here's something both old and new for all you Gillis fans: Tulsa was one of the first pieces of Gillis to be recorded (in 1950) and those waiting for a modern recording will be thrilled by this. We also have the premiere recording of his optimistic, patriotic Symphony No. 3, the final part of a trilogy including Symphonies 1 and 2 (TROY888). This is a hybrid SACD release and will play on all compact disc players.

Don Ray was born, reared and educated in Southern California, where he took his B.A. at U.C.L.A. and his M.A. from California State University. He joined the CBS-TV Music Staff in 1956 and remained there as Music Supervisor until retirement in 1986. While there, he composed scores for G.E. Theater, Gunsmoke, Twilight Zone, CBS Movie-of-the-Week, and Hawaii Five-O, the latter bringing an Emmy nomination for best dramatic score. On leaving CBS, he turned to writing concert music. He has also been active in teaching film scoring techniques. His Piano Concerto is in four movements, employs the standard symphony orchestra and lasts about 40 minutes. It was begun in Dublin in 2000 and completed in Los Angeles in 2001. Family Portrait, Suite No. 2 contains a series of character studies and events in the family of the composer's grandparents who homesteaded a farm in the American Northwest around 1900. This suite is drawn from the original work which has thirteen movements.

Two works honoring Earth Day comprise this distinctive recording. The first, by composer John Harmon, is a symphonic setting of the words of John Muir, Aldo Leopold, and Earth Day Founder Sen. Gaylord Nelson with descendants of these men as narrators. The second, Hymn to the Earth by Edward Joseph Collins, is a secular cantata for soloists, choir, and orchestra, praising Mother Earth and the beauty of the four seasons using text set by the composer. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Earth Day's founding in 1970, this recording was undertaken by a non-profit: Earth/Art Resources as part of their educational and cultural mission to foster Earth Day values.

And now for the serious side of Don Gillis...Yeah, right! Actually, in both the "Encore" Concerto and the Harp Rhapsody (written for the NBC Symphony's Edward Vito), one can hear some very serious thoughts being bandied about, but nearly all of these pieces represent high spirits and good, clean fun. "Twinketoes" was originally meant for a ballet about a crippled girl who dreams of becoming a ballerina, and surgery allows her to fulfill her destiny. But Gillis lost interest in the soap-operish plot. Instead, he assembled a suite, and we have the opening number, as sprightly as any Broadway overture, and with enough humor to keep Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck going. And we also have one of his last works, the whirlwind Rhapsody for Trumpet, which shows some more modern touches (bongo drums!). The Short Overture is a concise ball of energy, not really for any proposed opera, but a great curtain-raiser just the same.

David Ott's Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra was commissioned by the Knoxville Symphony Society immediately after the popular and critical reception of the Knoxville Symphony Orchestra's premiere in January 1986 of Ott's Water Garden, which the Society had commissioned to commemorate two milestones - the inaugural season of Kirk Trevor as Music Director and the 50th anniversary of the Orchestra. The new Saxophone Concerto was premiered in Knoxville on April 11, 1987 and was written for Debra Richtmeyer. David Ott is currently the Pace Eminent Scholar and Composer-in-Residence at the University of West Florida. He is the composer of four symphonies, one ballet, two oratorios, and, in his words, "overtures too numerous to count." Debra Richtmeyer transcribed the Strauss Oboe Concerto for soprano saxophone solo at the suggestion of Kirk Trevor. The transcription was premiered in November 1996 in the Czech Republic with Kirk Trevor conducting the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra. Ms. Richtmeyer has said: "The transcription was quite easy to do, since the soprano saxophone and the oboe have nearly identical playing ranges. Because the oboe part had to be transposed up a full step (the soprano saxophone is in B flat compared to the oboe which is in C), the concerto's range is slightly above the normal range for soprano saxophone, which results in increased difficulty for the saxophonist. In contrast, the saxophone in general has a larger dynamic range and greater ease of playing long phrases than the oboe."

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.

The basic story line of this ballet, created by Morton Gould for Agnes de Mille, follows the notorious Lizzie Borden murder case. The conversation between the two collaborators (de Mille and Gould) that opens this recording serves to provide a fascinating description of the creation of the Fall River Legend Ballet and chronicles the historical events leading up to the premiere. Born in1913 in Richmond Hill, New York, Morton Gould gained early critical attention as a piano prodigy, and for his composing and improvising abilities - his first composition was published at the age of six. By the time he was 21, Gould was conducting and arranging a weekly series of orchestra-radio programs for the WOR Mutual Network. Many of his works and orchestral settings were introduced on these broadcasts. Gould's work is known for its distinctively American flavor, integrating folk, blues, jazz, gospel and western elements.

With this disc, we proudly welcome the Cleveland Chamber Symphony to the Albany Records family. It is one of the finest ensembles of its kind in America. It is a professional ensemble-in-residence at Cleveland State University whose mission is to present new music along with neglected masterworks from the past. It was founded in 1980 by its Music Director, Edwin London. Minnesota-born Ross Lee Finney, now emeritus professor and Composer-in-Residence at the University of Michigan School of Music, has been a prominent American composer and teacher for more than 55 years. Edwin London is a great champion of the American composer. He was born in Philadelphia and graduated from Oberlin. He began his career playing French horn, jazz and classical. He studied with Philip Greely Clapp at Iowa State. Francis Thorne, a founder of the American Composers Orchestra, left a highly successful career as a Wall Street investment broker in the mid-thirties to become first a jazz pianist and later a composer of concert music. His maternal grandfather was Gustav Kobbe, noted critic and author of the celebrated Kobbe's Opera Book, still in print and widely used. This performance of Thorne's Symphony No. 6 is a live recording of the premiere performance held on March 4, 1996.

Born in LaGrange, Illinois, Scott Steidl grew up in Minneapolis. There he studied piano, bassoon, and saxophone and developed an interest in playing jazz. Later as an undergraduate at Brown University, he studied composition with Ron Nelson and continued his activities in the field of jazz as director of the Brown University Stage Band. After graduating from Brown, Steidl studied composition with David Diamond and Elliott Carter at the Juilliard School, earning his Masters and Doctoral degrees in composition. He then completed his education by pursuing his other major interest: medicine. He also holds a doctoral degree in medicine from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and specialty training at Harvard Medical School. His music is rooted in the vernacular of our time and represents the varied influences and rich imagination of the current American culture. His work strikes a balance among contrasting influences. A lover of popular music, jazz, music theater and western classical music, his musical point of view is inclusive rather than exclusive. In a concise description of Scott Steidl's music in The New York Times, John Rockwell characterized his work as "All-American."

The fine American conductor David Amos presents three CD world premieres of American music for chamber orchestra. The composers represented in this new disc are all from the conservative mainstream of America's music; their music is tonal and accessible. Morton Gould, the 1995 winner of one of the Kennedy Center Honors, is represented on a number of other Albany discs.

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Florence B. Price (1887-1953) studied at the New England Conservatory, the Chicago Musical College and the American Conservatory. Price composed throughout her life, producing as many as 300 compositions. In the 1930s and early 1940s some of her longer works were performed by music groups sponsored by the WPA in Illinois and Michigan. Price was highly visible as a teacher, performer and organizer in Chicago’s concert and church music spheres. Her Concerto in One Movement for piano was premiered in Chicago in 1934 with Price herself as pianist. There is no evidence of the piece being performed after the 1930s and there are no copies of the composer’s manuscript of the orchestral score. Composer Trevor Weston was commissioned to reconstruct the concerto’s orchestration in order to revive this deserving work. Price’s groundbreaking Symphony in E Minor was the first prize winner of the 1932 Rodman Wanamaker Music Contest and was premiered in 1933 by Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It is the first work by a black woman to be performed by a major symphony orchestra in the United States.

It is indeed a cause for excitement when two concertos by Florence Price, the first African American woman to write a symphony performed by a major U.S. Orchestra, are recorded. There are no known performances of Price’s first violin concerto, but the Violin Concerto No. 2, completed in 1952 was performed posthumously by its dedicatee, Minnie Cedargreen Jemberg at the opening of the Florence B. Price School in Chicago’s Kenwood neighborhood in 1964. The two concertos are joined on this recording by a work for violin and orchestra by Ryan Cockerham, which is a tribute to Florence Price’s home state of Arkansas. Violinist Er-Gene Kahng is on the faculty at the Universityof Arkansas in Fayetteville and is concertmaster of the Arkansas Philharmonic Orchestra. She is on the violin faculty at the Montecito International Music Festival, the Beverly Hills International Music Festival, and performs with the Bay View Music Festival string quartet. Ryan Cockerham’s creative work has been exhibited and performed by leading arts and academic organizations around the world, including the English National Ballet, Art Expo Milano, and the Texas Ballet Theater, among many others.

Over the past few years the highly charged, exuberant music of Florencio Asenjo has been slowly appearing on CD, and this is his debut on Albany. Asenjo employs an approach to music called maximalism, a method of transition from one theme to another to achieve a highly dense content which is constantly changing. Perhaps the technique sounds experimental, but the music certainly is not avant-garde. The Buenos-Aires born composer is beholden to his country's colorful past, and anyone who enjoys the early works (such as Estancia or Panambi) of Alberto Ginastera will certainly be caught up in the excitement of Asenjo's music. All three works on this disc were composed in 2004, and represent colorful portraits of life (Tearings and Glimpses) as well as various psychological states of mind (Passion and Apotheosis). As Asenjo himself has written, "I like when large-scale forms are built on many ideas. There should be a lot of independent ideas. I think that now the general need is for more substance in music."

Florencio Asenjo's music is inspired by literature and the visual arts as these three works so aptly show. El Gran Teatro del Mundo (The Great Stage of the World) is the title of a sacramental play by Calderon de la Barca, while Gleanings from the World of Lafacadio Hearn comes musicially from parts of Hearn's stories. The Birth of Venus reflects Asenjo's reaction to Sandro Botticelli's Nascita della Venere. This is the sixth release of Asenjo's orchestral music to be released on Albany Records.

For his fourth recording on Albany Records, "maximalist" composer Florencio Asenjo gives us three orchestral works based on literature. The Batrachomyomachia or The Battle of the Frogs and the Mice is an anonymous ancient Greek parody of the Iliad. Palm-of-the-Hand Tales is incidental music to ten of Yasunari Kawabata's narratives from his Palm-of-the-Hand Stories. Basile's Pentameron frames incidental musical episodes from Giambattista Baile's Penteramron, which was the source of famous stories by Perrault and the Grimm brothers.