Catalog

Ever since 16th century France the term tombeau (French for "tomb" or "tombstone") has denoted a set of poetic or musical compositions honoring the memory of a person, whether eminent or ordinary, real or imaginary. While the authorships of literary tombeaux were quite often collective, music tombeaux were usually created by individual composers and performers (i.e. Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin). It is no surprise that the death of the profoundly influential Claude Debussy (1862-1918) prompted Revue Musicale, a foremost music publication in Paris, to commission pieces from some leading European composers and performers, for a collection of works eulogizing the great composer. Each one of these musicians contributed to Tombeau in a unique and innately personal way, most of the works later becoming known as both individual pieces and parts of larger compositions). Encouraged by the success of Tombeau de Claude Debussy, Revue Musicale came up with another collection honoring the preeminent French composer and pedagogue Gabriel Faure (1845-1924). Composed by seven of Faure's best-known pupils (all French except for the Rumanian Enesco), the suite was completed and published by 1922, while the composer was still alive.

Horatio Parker was born in Auburndale, Massachusetts on September 15, 1863. Although today he is remembered primarily as the teacher of Charles Ives, his music was well-known nationwide and in England during his day. He also had an excellent reputation as an organist-choirmaster, conductor, and teacher-administrator. He began the study of music at the age of 14 with piano and organ lessons from his mother, who was also librettist for some of his mature choral works. He studied composition with George Chadwick and attended the Hochschule fÜr Musik in Munich where he studied with Josef Rheinberger. Parker became Dean of the School of Music at Yale University and conductor of the New Haven Symphony in 1894, positions he retained until his death in 1919. Hora Novissima, written in 1893, remains Parker's most inspired, popular, and best work. The venerable critic Philip Hale summed up how Americans were to feel about their native oratorio for the next 25 years, as choral societies gave it performance after performance throughout the country. He said: "A future historian will point back to a young man [who] appeared with a choral work of long breath that showed not only a mastery of the technique of composition, but spontaneous, flowing, and warmly colored melody, a keen sense of values in rhythm and in instrumentation, and the imagination of the born, inspired poet." Hora Novissima is a contemplative rather than a dramatic oratorio. It is a reflection on the Christian heritage through the words of a medieval monk, Bernard of Cluny, from whose monumental poem, De Contemptu Mundi, Hora is taken.

Gary Smart notes: The three duo sonatas on this recording are "hot" in that they flow out of the American jazz tradition, "sonatas" in that they utilize classical sonata form and its associated developmental techniques. Composer Gunther Schuller coined the term "third-stream music" to label the musical fusion of the jazz and classical musical traditions. I like his term. I think it suits these sonatas of mine better than most other labels."

Michael Pendowski joins with pianist Jeremy Samolesky in a recording of works for alto saxophone. The repertoire features music that is jazz or jazz-inspired, reflecting Pendowski's personal interests. A director of the jazz program at Auburn, Dr. Pendowski is also an assistant professor of saxophone. He has taught at Eastman, Northwestern University, and DePaul, among other schools. He is a graduate of Eastman and Northwestern. He is a prominent composer in the educational field, having published dozens of jazz and classical compositions, encompassing the full spectrum from professional ensembles and high schools and universities. He has been a clinician throughout the country and in South America and has conducted and taught at the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Also on the faculty at Auburn, Jeremy Samolesky has appeared on concert stages across four continents. He performs and teaches regularly at universities and conservatories around the world.

Countertenor Darryl Taylor and pianist Brent McMunn have assembled a superb selection of classics from the still growing corpus of spirituals, including a number of arrangements by key figures in the history of black musical composition. With this project, Taylor and McMunn contribute powerfully to the continuous translation of this aged music from oral tradition to written composition Ñ from folksong to art song. Darryl Taylor has sung in concert halls across the United States and Europe. A native of Detroit, Taylor holds degrees from the University of Southern California and the University of Michigan. He is on the faculty at the University of California, Irvine.

Here is a brilliant new CD release by one of the masters of California's thriving new music scene...filled with melodic invention and fluid rhythmic tapestries, this is music of the Heart guided by a keen intelligence - Terry Riley. Howard Hersh was born in Santa Monica and studied piano and composition at Stanford University. Steeped in 20th century modernism, his music has expanded to embrace a variety of tonalities, dance rhythms and quotations, dramatic narratives and explorations of the social conscience. According to the composer, his work is driven by a search for "the nexus of musical abstraction and representational humanity." A recipient of grants and awards from organizations that include Meet the Composer, the American Symphony Orchestra League, the American Composers Forum and the Rex Foundation (the non-profit wing of The Grateful Dead), his works have been performed at Tanglewood, Grace Cathedral and throughout Europe. Together with his compositional work, Hersh has directed many new music groups, including Music Now and the San Francisco Conservatory New Music Ensemble, which he founded, and has served as Music Director of radio station KPFA-FM.

This six-CD set documents the unparalleled artistry of pianist Howard Karp with concert recordings from 1962 through 2007. Howard Karp studied at the Oberlin Conservatory with Jack Radunsky and at Juilliard with Rosina Lhevinne. He also studied in Vienna as a Fulbright scholar at the Akademie für Musik and with Wilhelm Kempff in Positano. His 45-year teaching career at the Universities of Kentucky, Illinois and Wiconsin culminated in his appointment as Emeritus Professor of Music in 2000. As a performer, Howard Karp won acclaim for solo and chamber music recitals throughout the United States and Europe and his former students can be found on the faculties of numerous colleges and universities throughout North American and Asia.

Described in WIRE as "sonically beautiful yet unnerving," and by Graz's Kleine Zeitung as possessing "unusual emotional intensity," Daniel Rothman's music has been likened to the unlikely combination of Luigi Nono (Opera News) and Robert Ashley (All Music Guide). But these piano works trace another facet of Rothman's sensibility, powerfully and poetically interpreted by pianist Eric Huebner, whose performances of Ligeti and Messiaen have earned him high praise from conductors such as David Robertson and Oliver Knussen, with whom he has performed.

Here is a great new disc featuring the wonderful music of an American composer performed by a fine American orchestra. What does Dankner's music sound like? Dankner of course, but also a slightly more modern (and inventive) Howard Hanson. As you will hear for yourself Dankner is a composer whose works encompass the breadth of scope and range of expression of the late-Romantic tradition. In his music, there is an emphasis on melody, rich textures, chromatic harmony and contrapuntal devices. The Louisiana Philharmonic is the only musician-owned and managed orchestra in the United States. It has a long-standing relationship with the composer Stephen Dankner, thus it is fitting that the orchestra's very first recording feature the music of Mr. Dankner. Each of the three works which appear on this CD were given their New Orleans premiere by the Louisiana Philharmonic and Hurricane and Song of Solomon were world premieres given by the orchestra. Dankner's music has earned applause, not only from the orchestra and its conductor, but also from audiences. Unlike the music of those composers Ned Rorem dubbed the "serial killers," his work is progressive but accessible, capturing a style of late-Romanticism while incorporating newer influences and voices. Listen for the rich, Straussian-like colors in the vivid "Hurricane." The sweeping expanse of love in all its delight and mystery infuses "Song of Solomon." And with the newest piece on the disc, the Concerto for Alto Saxophone, Dankner expands our perceptions of where this instrument fits in the world of classical music.

Flutist Don Bailey and harpist Laura Logan Brandenburg offer a charming program of music for flute and harp that includes works from the standard repertoire as well as newer works by British and American composers. Don Bailey has enjoyed a diverse career as a performer, professor, festival planner, and board member of several arts organizations. He was solo flutist for Cunard Cruise Lines and has performed at festivals in Aspen, Nice, and Spoleto, among many others. His discography includes recordings on the Summit, Genuin, Parnassus, International, and Albany Records labels. Laura Brandenburg served as harp instructor at Texas Christian University School of Music. A highly regarded freelance harpist, she enjoys a wide variety of collaborative performance opportunities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Active as a camp clinician specializing in harp ensemble repertoire, Laura presents workshops locally and nationally. The duo has been performing together since 2017 and are committed to exploring and transcribing new music for flute and harp that expands the boundaries of the repertoire while feeding the artistic soul.

It won't take long for the listener to realize that all 27 songs on this recording feature distinguished American women poets. Within this recording, you will hear the poetry of Dorothy Parker, Emily Dickinson, Didi Balle, Tess Gallagher, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Elizabeth Bishop. Their words, masterfully set by composers John Musto, Larry Alan Smith and Juliana Hall, will console, inspire and even amuse. An added bonus is that the composers all accompany soprano Cherie Caluda on their works. Ms. Caluda, a faculty artist at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford, has established herself as a champion interpreter of contemporary works with her beautiful voice and stunning technique. A graduate of Eastman and Loyola College and the Academy of Vocal Arts, she is a captivating artist who brings the words of the poets to life on this recording.

This new all-Harris disc contains the best of his choral music. In his program notes for this disc, John Proffitt writes: "Roy Harris wrote music especially rich in qualities American regard as reflecting their national life and character - honesty, vigor and expansiveness - a tonal reflection of his western background. This Americanism was not that of the big cities and Tin Pan Alley, but rather was that of the bleak and barren expanses of the western plains, of the brooding prairie night, of stronger, more fundamental emotions than are usually associated with that other musical Americanism, that of Jazz and Broadway." The selections on this CD range from a cappella chorus to chorus with brass and organ. The "Mass," "Alleluia," and "Madrigal" are world premiere recordings. The "Three Songs of Democracy," "Symphony for Voices on Poems of Walt Whitman," and "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" are first stereo recordings.

A Liturgy of Hope for high voice (soprano in this recording), four part men's chorus and Organ was originally composed in 1917, but not published until 1928. It is one of Sowerby's major choral compositions. The Risen Lord was composed in 1919 for a cappella antiphonal double chorus. I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes for mezzo-soprano, chorus and Organ was also composed in 1919. The Three Fanfares for three trumpets, trombone, cymbal and side-drum were composed in September 1955. The Ark of the Covenant is a major choral work that was completed in July 1960. It is scored for tenor (narrator), baritone (King Solomon), four-part mixed chorus and Organ. The Fantasy for Trumpet and Organ was composed in August 1961, shortly after the world premiere of The Ark of the Covenant. The hymn Come, Risen Lord was composed in September 1963 and is sung on this recording by chorus with brass and Organ. Behold, O God Our Defender was composed in November 1964 for chorus and Organ. If the Lord Himself Had Not Been On Our Side was composed in September 1966 and is for four-part men's chorus and Organ. This disc contains a wonderful introduction to the music of this fine American composer.

Conductor Anthony J. Maglione has carefully selected texts that invite us to wrestle with ancient and timeless mysteries and think about how they are relevant to our present day. The centerpiece of the recording is Adolphus Hailstork's I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes, a three-movement cantata based on psalm texts. The William Jewell College Concert Choir is composed of the very best undergraduate choral singers who attend William Jewell College. The choir tours the United States and travels regularly to England and Scotland to perform. Anthony Maglione studied at Westminster Choir College, East Carolina University and the University of California, Los Angeles.

Composer and conductor Anthony Iannaccone 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 early part of his career, he supported himself as a part-time teacher at the Manhattan School of Music and as an orchestral violinist. Iannaccone's catalogue of approximately 50 published works includes three symphonies, smaller works for orchestra, several large works for chorus and orchestra, numerous chamber pieces, large works for wind ensemble, and several extended a cappella choral compositions. In 2001, his Waiting for Sunrise on the Sound was chosen as one of the five finalists in the BBC-London Symphony Masterprize competition from a field of 1151 orchestral works submitted. Anthony Iannaccone enjoys an active conducting career in both new music and standard orchestral repertory. Since 1971, he has taught at Eastern Michigan University, where he received the Distinguished Faculty Award and, for thirty years, conducted the Collegium Musicum in late eighteenth-century music for chorus and chamber orchestra.

Composer and conductor Anthony Iannaccone studied at the Manhattan School of Music and the Eastman School. His principal teachers were Vittorio Giannini, Aaron Copland and David Diamond. During the early part of his career, he supported himself as a part-time teacher at the Manhattan School of Music and as an orchestral violinist. His catalog of approximately 50 published works includes three symphonies, smaller works for orchestra, numerous chamber pieces, several large works for chorus and orchestra, large works for wind ensemble and several extended a cappella choral compositions. He enjoys an active conducting career in both new music and standard orchestral repertory. Since 1971, Iannaccone has taught at Eastern Michigan University, where he received the Distinguished Faculty Award and, for thirty years, conducted the Collegium Musicum in late 18th century music for chorus and chamber orchestra.

A regular on concert series throughout North America, Jonathan Keeble is quickly carving a niche as one of the leading performer/pedagogues of his generation. In addition to being a past winner of the Coleman Chamber Music Competition, and recipient of the Eastman School of Music Performer's Certificate, he is the recipient of numerous grants and awards. Mr. Keeble's passion for new music has led him to commission many new works for the flute from rising young composers. He is a popular performer at flute festivals around the world. He also routinely tours with Prairie Winds, a professional wind quintet. Mr. Keeble's teaching experience includes his present position as the flute professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with posts held at Oklahoma State University, and as visiting professor at the State University of New York at Fredonia.

In recent years, interest in Russian composer Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) has surged. International festivals, conferences, and competitions dedicated to Medtner have taken place in Europe and Russia, with scholars and performers devoting greater attention to his work. This recording features Medtner's songs and a work for violin and piano. His songs interweave the piano and voice to enhance the music flow and to bring out the deep poetic meaning in each piece. The pianist, Sasha Burdin, has devoted a great deal of research to the piano works of Medtner with his DMA focused on Medtner. Soprano Rachel Joselson enjoys a distinguished career as an opera singer, recitalist, and teacher. She is currently on the faculty at the University of Iowa. This is her third recording for Albany Records. Violinist Scott Conklin, also on the faculty at the University of Iowa, is known for his "brilliance of tone and charismatic delivery." A champion of new music, his discography includes two recordings for Albany Records.

Five works for solo piano plus a sonata for two pianos by the distinguished American composer Adolphus Hailstork are performed by Andrey Kasparov and Oksana Lutsyshyn. Sharing the honors on the solo piano pieces, they join forces for the Sonata for Two Pianos. Hailing from Armenian and Ukrainian families, these musicians were educated at the Moscow State Conservatory and came to the United States in the 1990s. They presently teach at Old Dominion University where they are colleagues of the composer.

Here we have the first complete recording of Gluck's charming one-act serenata teatrale for chamber orchestra and four treble voices, composed for the marriage of Hapsburg Archduke Joseph in January 1765. The Archduke's first wife had died. This time he was to marry the Bavarian princess, Maria Josepha. For this performance of the new Gluck work, four of the Archduke's daughters from his first marriage who were all accomplished musicians, sang roles in the new work. The new bridegroom's younger brother Leopold, conducted. That the four Archduchesses could successfully negotiate the florid soprano roles Gluck fashioned for them, is most impressive. One presumes that the youngest daughter, Marie Antoinette, was not so gifted. The serenata teatrale was presented as a surprise to the newly weds at Schonbrunn Castle in Vienna in the presence of the rest of the Hapsburg court. It was deemed such a success, that on the spot, Gluck was asked to compose another opera. The result was La Corona. The work was planned for November, but because the Emperor died suddenly, the work was not performed.

The compositions on this album represent more than 20 years of creative collaboration between composer Victoria Bond and pianist Paul Barnes. It began in 1999 with the recording of Black Light when Barnes first introduced Bond to the communion hymn Potirion Sotiriu. That started an exploration of three distinctive Byzantine chants. The two piano concertos were recorded earlier and are re-released here. All of these works are related to each other in that they are about the mystical quality of light. Victoria Bond leads a multifaceted career as composer, conductor, lecturer, and artistic director of Cutting Edge Concerts. Her works have been performed around the world and her recordings appear on numerous labels including Albany Records and Naxos. Pianist Paul Barnes continues to electrify audiences with his intensely expressive playing and cutting-edge programming.

David Gillingham earned degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and Michigan State University. He has an international reputation for the works he has written for band and percussion. Many of his works are now considered standards in the repertoire. He is currently a Professor of Music at Central Michigan University. Double Star for Solo Clarinet, Solo Piano and Wind Ensemble was commissioned by Gary Green and the University of Miami Wind Ensemble to celebrate the friendship between the composer and the two soloists. The work, therefore, celebrates humanity, especially the goodness and friendship one achieves through music. David Maslanka’s Song Book is a set of pieces that are songlike – that is, intimate and expressive, though not necessarily quiet. “The solo flute feels like a voice to me,” writes the composer. “One which has a complex story to tell, in the form of musical dreams. I have used three chorale melodies in Song Book.” David Maslanka was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He attended the Oberlin College Conservatory where he studied composition with Joseph Wood. He spent a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg and did graduate work in composition at Michigan State University with H. Owen Reed. He has served on the faculties of the State University of New York at Geneseo, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University and Kingsborough College of the City University of New York. He now lives in Missoula, Montana.

Thai composer Dr. Narong Prangcharoen’s success as a composer was confirmed by his receiving the prestigious Charles Ives Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Barlow Prize. He enjoys an international reputation and is recognized as one of Asia’s leading composers. His music has been performed worldwide by many renowned orchestras and new music ensembles. He was composer-in-residence of the Pacific Symphony and is now composer-in residence of the Thailand Philharmonic and Artistic Director of the Thailand International Composition Festival. This recording, his third for Albany Records, features seven of his orchestral works.

Joshua Rosenblum is a composer, pianist and conductor. He is a graduate of Yale College and the Yale School of Music. He is the composer and co-lyricist of the cult hit musical Fermat's Last Tango, which enjoyed a successful Off-Broadway run at the York Theater, as well as the forthcoming musical Einstein's Dreams, based on the best-selling novel by Alan Lightman. Equally comfortable in the contemporary classical idiom, he has written numerous commissions and has received awards from ASCAP and Meet the Composer. His choral setting of "Jabberwocky" won the Ithaca College Choral Composition Contest, out of 200 entries nationwide. Rosenblum has conducted ten Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, including Miss Saigon, The Music Man, Anything Goes and Falsettos. He has appeared as pianist with the New York Pops and the American Symphony Orchestra. He is also highly sought after as an exponent of experimental, innovative, and unusual works of new music theater. He is also a music journalist who has written articles for Newsday, Stagebill and reviews for Opera News.

This fascinating disc contains 30 of the most popular carols in "impossible" arrangements. Gordon Green writes: "Every year at Christmas time I'm struck by the predictability of most of the Christmas music that crowds the record stores and airwaves. In this collection, I show the Christmas classics in a different light. I take a fresh look at some of the best melodies in circulation." The "fresh look" Green is talking about uses just synthesizers to create the music and catchy and appealing it is.

Leo Sowerby's piano compositions span the composer's entire creative life. His very first composition, written in 1905 at the early age of ten, was a piece now lost entitled The Dawn of Day. His last important piece with piano is the Dialog for Organ and Piano, written within a year of the composer's death in 1968. Sowerby was a born pianist and in his early years he frequently performed his own music and the works of other composers as well. As he grew older, he appeared less frequently in public as a pianist and finally gave it up all together. The Organ became his primary instrument and he divided his time between composing, teaching and his work as a church musician. Dating from 1916 to 1929, the selections on this compact disc are products of the composer's youthful maturity. All these works were composed when Sowerby was in his twenties, except for the Florida Suite, which he composed when he was 34.

George Enescu was an extraordinary musician. One of the most acclaimed violinists of the last century, he was also an accomplished pianist, conductor, and composer. As a composer he is still too little known and his music too little analyzed outside his native Romania. His music exhibits a very personal blend of time-honored procedures, forward-thinking techniques, and ethnic intimations. The works on this recording belong to the last period of his career and show a rare maturity and depth that contribute to a unique and sometimes difficult to define language.

So you are saying to yourself, repertoire a bit out of the ordinary for Albany Records? True, but still it is repertoire performed by a magnificent American conductor and wonderful American orchestra. This disc was first issued privately by the Long Beach Symphony Association. This is when it came to our attention. We were very impressed as were the reviewers who had the opportunity to hear the disc. So, here at Albany Records, we are not just about American music, but American artists as well. In truth, no major label would ever give our great American artists of this caliber a chance for exposure, so we decided to do it ourselves. In particular, the performance of the Bridge is terrific and can hold its own with the best out there. The disc is well recorded. JoAnn Falletta is one of this country's finest conductors. Listen to this disc yourself and you can hear the talent.

Composer/pianist Allen Shawn began the improvisations on this recording during the height of the pandemic, recording and sending them to his son in Los Angeles. None of the pieces were planned. Some were recorded on his phone; some on a zoom recorder — yet taken as an entire sequence, the nineteen pieces cohere like a notated piece. This recording therefore should be received in the spirit of those old recordings created from tape recordings of musicians done in someone's living room, and never intended to be made into a record. It is an artist's sketchbook, not a finished painting, but nonetheless possibly deserving consideration in its own right.

Stan Link lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife, Melanie Lowe, their daughter, Wednesday Link, and a dog named Dingo. Stan attended the Oberlin Conservatory and studied composition with Ed Miller and Richard Hoffmann. He later became a student of Roman Haubenstock-Ramati at the Vienna Hochschule fur Musik and went on to study composition at Princeton with Paul Lansky, Steven Mackey, Peter Westergaard and Claudio Spies. He taught composition at La Trobe University in Melbourne Australia and at the University of Illinois. He is currently teaching at Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music. With published essays and papers on noise, silence and film, Stan is also active as a writer about music. As a creator of a wide range of acoustic and computer music ranging from solo chamber pieces to a ballet for orchestra, electric guitar and African drums, his pieces have been heard on concerts, broadcasts, webcasts and new music festivals across the United States, in Europe, and Australia. His RH-, for violin and computer-generated accompaniment appears on Albany TROY728, Violin Visions.

Four world premieres highlight this second recording by Movses Pogossian for Albany Records, including works by the esteemed Hungarian composer György Kurtág and Tigran Mansurian, who is acknowledged as the greatest living Armenian composer. Recorded in Armenia, this was a very personal project for violinist Movses Pogossian as he spent the first 20 years of his life there. Pogossian is a prizewinner of the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Competition and the 1985 USSR National Violin Competition. A committed proponent of new music, Movses Pogossian has premiered more than 40 works. He is the recipient of the 2011 Forte Award from Jacaranda, given for outstanding contributions to the promotion of new music and modern music. Active as a chamber musician, recitalist and soloist, Pogossian made his debut at the Darmstadt Festival in Germany in 2008 and has performed with the Boston Pops, the Tucson Symphony and the Halle Orchestra in Germany, among others.

On this CD are gathered shorter and occasional pieces and one extended work by California-born composer David Macbride. The pieces were written in a period spanning a little over a decade, and are played by him here with a nuanced artistry and great authority. It is a delightful and ultimately very moving recording, as it reveals a composer in mid-career who is able to do that very hardest of things, which is to allow the listener into his world without posing or imposing. In a period when "new music" often seems to need some kind of verbal explanation, Macbride's work, even at its most complex, holds true to music's purpose, which is to communicate directly to the listener with sounds. So natural and sure is his composer's art that any accompanying notes seem almost unnecessary. Nevertheless, it is a pleasure to recommend music that is at once so touching and so beautifully made. Macbride's roots in California and in Beijing, China, the birthplace of his mother, influence the tone of his music, which, even at its most dense, generates an extraordinary attentiveness and calmness in the hearer. His language seems an effortless coalescence of Eastern and Western elements, remnants of neo-classicism, figurations and harmonies from mid-century jazz, and, at times, echoes of Satie, Messiaen and of an attractive early work of fellow Californian John Cage. Different degree of influence from these sides emerge in different works, but one is struck in the end by the music's remarkably unified voice and sense of purpose. Transparent, lucid, firmly in the present, yet also deeply meditative, the overriding impulse behind Macbride's expression feels quietly, unpretentiously religious.