Catalog

Albany Records in cooperation with the Center for Black Music Research is initiating a series undertaking to document the musics of the African diaspora. This first volume features two orchestral works Ñ one by Mary Watkins, who is an eclectic composer and pianist of the classical and jazz traditions and the other by Olly Wilson, one of the most distinguished composers of his generation. Watkins' work swings, grooves, and hearkens to the roots of African-American musical expression. Elements of jazz, traditional African music and popular forms are merged with contemporary techniques and colorful orchestrations. A veritable tour de force, Wilson's multimovement song cycle features three vocal soloists and a chamber ensemble that highlights extensive percussion. Drawing from sources such as spirituals and African-American poets, Wilson uses musical and textual emblems from African-American poetry in inventive ways that both surprise and entice.

Violinist Mark Rush offers a contemporary program of music for violin and percussion assisted by the Arizona Percussion Ensemble and percussionist Norman Weinberg. With Michael Daugherty's Lex, based on Superman's most vexing foe, Lou Harrison's innovative concerto mixing "junk" percussion instruments with traditional European one, Craig Walsh's work for violin and percussion based on ecobiological ideas expressed in purely abstract musical ways, and Kevin Puts' work for violin, clarinet and marimba, we have exciting music for a non-traditional combination.

As the composer says, "No question about it, this is a curious sort of opera. There's no orchestra, just seven singers, singing 41 roles and providing their own accompaniment on- and off-stage, with voices, hand bells, bird whistles, drums, and occasional sound effects." This DVD presents the world premiere recording of Westergaard's Alice in Wonderland. A professor emeritus at Princeton University, Westergaard has been making operas -- his own and others -- happen for 55 years. He directed the Princeton University Opera Theatre and founded the Opera Festival of New Jersey. His opera, Moby Dick, has been released on Albany Records.

Johann Strauss II's delicious 1874 operetta, set in turn-of-the-century Vienna, is performed in an English adaptation by Richard Kagey by a stellar cast of young singers who are sure to make their mark. The story is fun and familiar but it is the score that really makes the work timeless.

A graduate of Harvard and Yale, Martin Boykan counts Walter Piston, Aaron Copland and Paul Hindemith as his composition teachers and Eduard Steuermann as his piano teacher. He founded the Brandeis Chamber Ensemble and was pianist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He has written for a wide variety of instrumental combinations including four string quartets, many trios, duos and solo works, song cycles as well as instrumental ensembles and choral music. His music is widely performed by ensembles like the New York New Music Ensemble, Earplay, Music Viva, Collage New Music and Speculum Musicae, to name a few. The recipient of many awards and commissions, Martin Boykan is an Emeritus Professor of Music, Brandeis University and was Composer in Residence at the Composer's Conference in Wellesley and the University of Utah. His music appears on the CRI and BMOP record labels.

The Palisades Virtuosi (Margaret Swinchoski, flute, Donald Mokrynski, clarinet, Ron Levy, piano) lays claim to a special achievement with this recording. Their mission of commissioning and recording works for the instrumentation of their ensemble has resulted in more than 40 new pieces, six of which are heard on their third recording in this series for Albany Records. No other ensemble has done as much to enhance the repertoire for flute, clarinet and piano. Their musical and heartfelt approach coupled with their dazzling virtuosity has endeared them to audiences and composers alike.

This selection of choral music by Viktors Bastiks (1912-2001) is drawn mainly from his rich output of sacred works. His almost 300 compositions in this genre form a substantial cornerstone of Latvian sacred music. Even though his compositional output is impressive, Viktors Bastiks is one of Latvia's most ignored composers, which makes this recording all the more significant. The musical language of Viktors Bastiks is clear and tightly knit, concentrated in form and expression, whether it be a simple folk song setting or the extended forms of his many cantatas. It is heartfelt music, natural and unaffected with a strong spiritual aura.

The distinctive character and originality of Bernard Rands' music have been variously described as "plangent lyricism: with a "dramatic intensity" and a "musicality and clarity of idea allied to a sophisticated and elegant technical mastery." Through more than 100 published works and many recordings, Rands has been firmly established as a major figure in contemporary music. The recording include "now again" -- fragments from Sappho, a work commissioned for the Network for New Music, the brilliant ensemble based in Philadelphia with a 25 year history of adventurous and innovative programming.

This recording highlights works by key 20th-century composers of Eastern European provenance. This delightful music is given sparkling performances by The Prairie Winds, a wind quintet formed in 1996 by a group of friends. Since then, The Prairie Winds have been captivating audiences with renditions of the finest wind quintet literature. The ensemble is distinguished by its unique blend of sound, virtuosity of technique and commitment to the music.

The nine recordings of Ezra Laderman's chamber music on Albany Records are now offered in a slipcase edition at a special price. Included are his string quartets, music for piano, and chamber works for various instrumental ensembles. Performers such as the Cassatt String Quartet, violinist Erick Friedman, and flutist Ransom Wilson offer critically acclaimed performances of this distinguished American composer's music. Taking 10 years to complete, this series offers a comprehensive survey of Laderman's solo instrumental and chamber music.

Milos Raickovich, composer and conductor, has lived and worked in Belgrade, Paris, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Hiroshima and New York. He writes music in a unique style -- "New Classicism" -- that has been described as "...a combination of the American Minimalist style with European Classical and Romantic music." (John Schaefer, WNYC's "New Sounds") Love, passion and longing are the recurring themes in all the works on this disc. FAR AWAY includes six pieces, each based on a different type of scale, including various 3, 5, 6, and 7-note scales. The opening piece is the energetic and primal Flying Trio, for violin, cello and piano. The Romantic-sounding Sonata and Three Romances are works grounded in the Minimalist approach. A meditative, Asian influenced film score "El contorno" Variations is also included, as well as B-A-G-D-A-D, played by the RTS Symphony Orchestra from Belgrade. (Three other arrangements of the same piece are included in Milos Raickovich's antiwar CD B-A-G-D-A-D, Albany Records.) FAR AWAY concludes with the nostalgic Winter Waltz.

Mallarmé Chamber Players, the distinguished ensemble based in Durham, North Carolina presents a program of chamber music by African American composers. Spanning several generations of composers, the recording includes works by Undine Smith Moore (1904-1989); Thomas Jefferson Anderson (b. 1928); William Banfield (b. 1961) and Anthony Kelley (b. 1965). Six-time Grammy Award-nominee Nnenna Freelon joins Mallarmé to perform Soul Gone Home by William Banfield, which, along with Grist for the Mill by Anthony Kelley, was commissioned by the ensemble. You can go to this link to hear a fascinating interview done by WUNC Radio in Chapel Hill with Nnenna Freelon, William Banfield and representatives from the Mallarmé Chamber Players and Videmus Records, who produced the recording.

Jorge Elias Variego is a clarinetist and composer born in Rosario, Argentina, in 1975. He holds a Bachelors Degree from Universidad Nacional de Rosario and a Masters Degree from Carnegie Mellon University, where he studied with Michael Rusinek and Leonardo Balada. He has performed as soloist with the most renowned orchestras in Argentina and his works have been performed throughout the world. This recording features Variego performing all the clarinet parts in works written for a variety of clarinet configurations and ensembles.

The distinguished composer/conductor David Stock is Professor Emeritus of Music at Duquesne University, where he conducted the Duquesne Contemporary Ensemble. He has been Composer-in-Residence of the Pittsburgh Symphony and the Seattle Symphony, and is Conductor Laureate of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, which he founded in 1976. He retired as Music Director of PNME at the end of the 1998/99 season, after 23 years of dedication to new music and the living composer. His compositions have been performed throughout the world and he is the recipient of many awards, honors and commissions. This recording of his last three quartets includes one commissioned by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano (the Seventh), who have been an integral part of Stock's musical universe for the past two decades.

American composer, cellist, and arranger Alan Shulman (1915-2002) made a distinct and significant contribution to American music. He was a fellowship student at the Juilliard School studying both cello (with Felix Salmond) and composition (with Bernard Wagenaar.) He then continued his studies on cello with Emanuel Feuermann and in composition with Paul Hindemith. Shulman had a significant career as cellist, teacher, arranger and, of course, composer. He performed extensively as cellist of the Kreiner, Stuyvesant, and Haydn String Quartets, the Philharmonia and Vardi Trios, with An Die Musik, and as a charter member of both the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini and the Symphony of the Air. Shulman was a notable and active teacher for many decades. Primarily know for his Theme and Variations for Viola and Orchestra, his body of fine solo cello literature is virtually unknown today. This recording intends to begin raising awareness of this important music.

A cycle based on folk material for flute and guitar by Robert Beaser, a commissioned song cycle by David Liptak based on the poetry of Homero Aridjis for soprano, flute and guitar, plus the ever popular Histoire du Tango by Astor Piazzolla are given exquisite performances by flutist Bonita Boyd and guitarist Nicholas Goluses with Kathryn Lewek, soprano on this recording of Songs & Dances of the Americas. The Boyd/Goluses Duo has received much acclaim, the two members breathing new fire into a rich repertoire for flute and guitar, as well as an artistic vision that embraces support for new repertoire.

Most of the music on this recording honors artists whose works are going or have gone, and each work is either a song or composition in the lyrical mode. The compositions celebrate the work of departed masters--Yehuda Amichai, Gyögy Ligeti, Johannes Brahms and Willie Dixon (among others) and the title honors the last album recorded by Walter Becker and Donald Fagin of Steely Dan. The distinguished American composer Martin Bresnick's compositions are performed throughout the world and he is the recipient of many prizes and commissions including The Rome Prize, The Berlin Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among many others. Recognized as in influential composition teacher, Martin Bresnick is a member of the faculty at Yale University's School of Music.

This selection of piano music by Henry Martin composed between 1980 and 2007 has a place within both the composer's broader work and the literature for piano to which it makes a valuable contribution. Over the years, Martin has composed for chorus, orchestra, string quartet, various smaller ensembles, and solo instruments; but many of his works involve the piano, and about a score of them are for solo piano. All facets of Martin's life (pianist, music theorist, educator) come through in this music that is so beautifully performed by the noted pianist Hilary Demske. The listener to these pieces can look forward to rewards for the heart as well as the mind.

The cycle of birth, death, experience, and the renewal of life can be found in varying degrees as the inspiration for several of the works on this recording, and in some cases, their reinterpretations. This recording highlights the diversity and creativity that can be found in the music of these distinguished American composers. The music is brought to life through the exquisite performances of Jonathan Keeble and Ann Yeung. Their collaboration as a flute/harp duo since 2002 has led them to venues in Asia, Europe and throughout North America.

For more than 40 years, Lynn Klock has been an enthusiastic participant in new music for the saxophone. He has premiered more than 50 compositions written for and dedicated to him and this cd of world premiere recordings highlights this aspect of his career. All of the compositions on the cd are the result of friendships and musical collaborations between the composer and Mr. Klock and were written specifically for Klock or one of his students.

The three concertos on this recording are representative of a contemporary renaissance in concerto writing. The challenge for composers is how to tackle the range of technical and expressive problems. Ross Bauer, Steven Burke and Martin Matalon have each responded to that question with music that is fresh, imaginative, technically brilliant and dramatically convincing. Though not one of the works actually bears the title, each is a true concerto, albeit in a recognizably contemporary way.

Japanese-American composer Asako Hirabayashi writes: "After 150 years' absence, there has been a vigorous revival of interest in and compositions for the harpsichord. To address the lack of music for harpsichord as a solo instrument, I started to write my own pieces." The recording was made at St. Bridget's church in rural Johnson County, Iowa. The harpsichord is a French double manual after Peter Taskin, built by Eizo Hori in 1986.

The Ibis Camerata consists of four internationally acclaimed musicians of the new generation. Their unique ensemble of violin, cello, clarinet and piano enables them to command a much more varied repertoire than the traditional piano trio. Avid supporters of new music, the Ibis Camerata concentrates on Boston composers for their third recording on Albany Records. All of the composers have a relationship to the New England Conservatory, either as former students or as faculty and administrators.

New remastering and annotation distinguish this reissue of a 1992 release on CRI with the addition of historic private recordings made by Gunnar Johansen of Collins' music. This adds to the existing seven volumes previously released by Albany Records of this Chicago composer's music.

Featuring performances by Grammy Award winners Gloria Cheng, Masumi Rostad (Pacifica Quartet) and Oto Carillo (Chicago Symphony), the four pieces on this recording are all inspired by our relation to the world, both natural and invented. The Machine Awakes is about technology and where it's leading our spirit. Seven Memorials is inspired by Maya Lin's elegy to our planet; Quark Shadows and Nebulae are about the world untouched by us. Stephen Andrew Taylor, born in 1965, teaches music at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

The most recent work on this recording, the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, was completed in 2008 and features the composer's son as soloist. The composer observes that "The special qualities of all of the works on this cd are captured skillfully by the conductor Ian Hobson and the Sinfonia Varsovia." This recording is the second volume on Albany Records that features this esteemed composer's orchestral music.

This recording, a collection of performances by some of the most celebrated performers of our time that Leon Kirchner considered extraordinary, continues the series on Albany Records devoted to this distinguished composer's music. Leon Kirchner, who died in December of 2009, performed regularly both as a pianist and conductor, but was always first and foremost, a composer. He left a legacy of masterworks and made an indelible mark on the history of contemporary music.

Donald Reid Womack is the composer of more than 80 works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments and voice. He received a Fulbright Scholar Fellowship to live and work in Japan. His work with Japanese and other Asian instruments has placed him at the vanguard of East-West cross-cultural fertilization and has enabled him to make a significant contribution to the body of new literature for Asian instruments, both alone and in combination with Western instruments. His music combines a rich tonal language with an intricate use of color and texture and an exploration of multiple perceptions of rhythm.

Gregory Fritze is a prize-winning composer, Fulbright Scholar and an active performer, conductor and educator and is chair of the composition department at Berklee College of Music. His passion for the tuba has inspired numerous compositions and this recording features his music for that instrument performed by Gary Bird, the retired professor emeritus of music at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and friends. The works range from tuba duets to a concertino for tuba and orchestra.

This recording offers a tantalizing sampling of Morton Gould's work from the vibrant decade of the mid 1930s and '40s, featuring two of his trademark Symphonettes, the gutsy Concerto for Orchestra and his earliest big orchestral work -- Chorale and Fugue in Jazz -- presented in full for the first time since its 20-year-old composer wrote it with Interplay, the diminutive concerto holding center stage.

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

Lawrence Dillon is best known for his chamber music, with commissions, performances and recordings by the American, Borromeo, Cassatt, Daedalus, Emerson and Mendelssohn String Quartets; this recording is the first to feature some of his many works combining words and music. Composer in Residence at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Dillon began composing at the age of seven, despite the complete loss of hearing in one of his ears due to a childhood illness. Appendage and Other Stories is a collection of Dillon's works that combine words and music. Entrance and Exit use spoken text, Still Point is sung and Appendage alternates between spoken and sung text.