Catalog

Tibor Serly will always be associated with Bela Bartok. It was Serly, after all, who gets credit for completing the older composer's Piano Concerto No. 3 and virtually composing the Viola Concerto based on Bartok's outlines and editorial decisions. But Serly, who was born in Hungary and died in London, was a composer of intriguing talent, an excellent violist, violinist and conductor, a musical theorist and was sought-out by students as a teacher. A pupil of Zoltan Kodaly, Leo Weiner and Jeno Hubay, he would eventually play as both violist and violinist in the Cincinnati Symphony under Reiner, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Stokowski and later in the NBC Symphony under Toscanini. His music is in the robust, harmonically spiky tradition we associate with 20th Hungarian composers. Of particular interest is the Concertino 3X3 (pronounced "3 times 3"). As the composer explained: "Concertino 3X3 is at once a Concertino for Solo Piano in three movements; it is also a Concertino for Orchestra, alone; but when played together simultaneously, it is converted into a Concertino for Solo Piano and Orchestra. Thus, in actual performance, one hears three different compositions." This is all fascinating, vital music, and this new release from the enterprising Paul Freeman will allow everyone to appreciate the freshness of Tibor Serly's voice.

This recording project began with a concert in October 2000 at SUNY Ulster in Stone Ridge, New York, a community college with a vision. Larry Berk, then director of its library and information services, had recently created an Artist in Residence Program, with the support of the Ulster Foundation, to leaven the practical course offerings typical of most community colleges with a healthy dash of inspiration from working artists. Soprano Danielle Woerner was the resident artist for the fall of 2000, and designed a program for students of varying ages, backgrounds and experience. The residency required one major public presentation, and the concert of October 2000 featured some of her favorite Hudson Valley composers. Some of the music had an extra Hudson Valley flavor: words by Woodstock writers Pearl Bond and Gail Goodwin. Nearly all of the composers took part in the musical preparation and several participated as performers in both concert and on this CD. Since the project began, both Alan Shulman and Robert Starer have passed on, adding some additional poignancy to the presentation. Soprano Danielle Woerner is acclaimed for her performances of concert and operatic repertoire ranging from early Baroque to modern works. While maintaining active professional ties to New York City, she has lived in the mid-Hudson Valley. An alumna of Barnard and Bard Colleges, she counts among her most influential singing mentors Nora Bosler, Martha Gerhart and Bethany Beardslee Winham.

Highly acclaimed by the musical press for his exceptional performances of unusual material such as the music of Phillip Glass and David Ott, Paul Barnes has performed throughout the United States, Europe and the Asian countries. As student of the famed Menahem Pressler, he is Associate Professor and Co-Chair of Piano at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music as well as a teacher at the Bosendorfer International Piano Academy in Vienna. He now continues an ongoing series of American works for piano and orchestra, including two bona-fide classics, Gershwin's I Got Rhythm Variations and Rhapsody in Blue. Victoria Bond was a composition student of Roger Sessions and a conducting student of Sixten Ehrling at Juilliard (where she was the first woman to earn a doctorate degree in conducting in 1977). Her Ancient Keys is inspired by Barnes himself. His fascination with Byzantine Chant, leading to his role as Head Chanter at Lincoln's Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, inspired Bond to write a concerto that expanded upon a melody known as Potirion Sotiriu ('Cup of Salvation'). Jeffrey Hass, associated with Indiana University, was commissioned by the University to write the Concerto for Amplified Piano, a work which allows the piano to be on a more equal footing with the powerful timbres of the wind ensemble.

Nicholas Anthony Ascioti was born in Syracuse, and attended the College of St. Rose in Albany, New York where he graduated in Composition and Conducting. Since then, the College has performed his music and sponsored an entire evening of his works. He earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in Composition from Bennington College in Vermont. Among his teachers were Allen Shawn, Dr. Amy Williams and Stephen Siegel. Nicholas received his professional debut at 21 with a commission from David Alan Miller. Judge, Jury and Executioner was premiered by the Dogs of Desire, a chamber ensemble of the Albany Symphony Orchestra. Nicholas is currently a composer-in-residence with the Society for New Music in Syracuse and as a conductor, focuses on 20th century repertoire. The pieces presented here offer a variety of perspectives in both textural and musical form. They reveal our human desire to connect, to relate - to ourselves, to other human beings, to the cosmic reality of being, and ultimately to the Source of our being.

In 1945 George Walker became the first black graduate of the renowned Curtis Institute of Music. The centerpiece of his graduation recital was the Liszt Sonata in b-minor, newly recorded here as an anniversary celebration. Along with this work are representative examples of Walker's art as a highly expressive, original composer who writes in a "tough," sinewy modern style but whose works reveal a distinct, American lyricism. George Theophilus Walker was born in Washington. His early years were notable for his performances in New York's Town Hall, and his appearances with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3. His first composition, the String Quartet No. 1, appeared in 1946 and the second movement, Lyric for Strings, is performed on this new CD. Walker has composed over 90 works for orchestra, chamber orchestra, piano, strings, voice and solo instruments. In 1996 he was the first black recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music for Lilacs, for Voice and Orchestra. Walker is a true American treasure, and we are proud to release this latest disc in a series devoted to his compositions and performances from the piano repertoire (these can be heard on TROY 117, 136, 154, 252, 270, 411, 523 and 697).

Begun in 2003 with concerts in Massachusetts and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Shakespeare Concerts has presented recitals of music inspired by the immortal Bard - from original English text settings by many British composers, to settings in translations by Schubert, Brahms, Berlioz, Gounod, Thomas and Verdi, to purely instrumental pieces by Britten, Beethoven, Prokofiev and Korngold. The mainstay of this series has been the music of Joseph Summer, with premieres of two dozen of his sixty-odd Oxford Songs for one or more voices and various ensembles, as well as non-vocal pieces such as the ballet Dance of the Mechanics for string quintet. This disc, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day, presents works premiered during the third and fourth seasons, including several in collaboration with Boston-based string quartet QX. The previous release in this series is What a Piece of Work is Man (TROY750).

David Gompper is Professor of Composition and Director of the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa. Butterfly Dance represents a response to and a re-imagining of a native-American Hopi Indian tune of the same name. Noel Zahler is director of the School of Music at the University of Minnesota. In his Trio, Zahler draws upon a conventional ensemble in order to create a composition with an intense drive, and possessing a full and varied sound palette. Marilyn Shrude is a faculty member at Bowling Green State University where she chairs the Department of Musicology/Composition/Theory. Secrets is a setting of nine Emily Dickinson poems, each of which are associated with one or more of the seasons of the year. Joseph Dangerfield is Assistant Professor of Music Composition and Theory at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Waves Roll On...is drawn from the Russian lyric poet Fedor Tyutchev (1803-73), whose vivid imagery served as the impetus from which Dangerfield crafted his melodic, rhythmic and formal structures. Finally there is a major chamber work, Vox Balaenae, by one of America's most important composers, George Crumb. Founded in 1993, the Studio for New Music is one of the leading contemporary music groups in Russia. As a project initiated by Joseph Dangerfield, this CD showcases not only the varied styles of these American composers but highlights the universal nature of contemporary music.

Finally! This is undoubtedly the first commercial recording of the Virgil Thomson Cello Concerto (whose first movement provides the title for this disc) since the classic old Columbia recording with Luigi Silva from the early 1950s, and it's in SACD sound! This delightful work, wearing its Americana on its sleeve but couched in the framework of a classic work such as the Haydn, is full of the kind of joyful, melancholy and eccentric moods and hymn-tunes one hears in the classic Thomson film scores and orchestral works. The Four Portraits, adapted from the more than 140 piano pieces he wrote of friends, artists and acquaintances, were adapted by Silva; the Frederic James Portrait is an original by Thomson in this form. Charles Fussell has a link to the great American past as he studied with Bernard Rogers at the Eastman School, and his music maintains a traditional sound with somewhat more advanced touches. Hailed by John Williams and others as "an outstanding cellist and truly dedicated artist," Emmanuel Feldman has emerged as one of the most innovative cellists of his generation. Known for his intense, soulful playing and a broad range of repertoire, he enjoys an active career as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist and champion of new music, having given premieres of works by Aaron Kernis, Gunther Schuller, David Diamond and himself.

Throughout her career, flutist Sue Ann Kahn has been acclaimed for her virtuosic and sensitive performances of music of all periods. She was honored with one of the first Solo Recitalist Fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts in recognition of her outstanding gifts as a flutist and received the American New Music Consortium Award for distinguished performances of contemporary music. She is a member of the Jubal Trio, the League ISCM Chamber Players and other ensembles. Ms. Kahn has received consistent praise for her solo and chamber music recordings (her highly popular disc of music of Jacques Ibert, Jacques Around the Clock, is on Albany TROY145). Formerly Professor of Music at Bennington College, Ms. Kahn teaches flute and chamber music at Mannes College of Music, at New York University, and in the Music Performance Program at Columbia University, and gives master classes and recitals nationwide. She has served as President of the National Flute Association, and has been consistently active as an advocate for the flute and its music.

This unique disc features the artistry of soprano Judith Kellock in works by composers either American-born (Womack, Moss and Askim), or now an American citizen (Chen Yi) or born and active in Japan (Hosokawa). These works show each composer's fascination with Asian culture, primarily that of China and Japan as well as settings of Vietnamese poetry (Askim's Spring Essence). Judith Kellock has been described in the press as "a singer of rare intelligence and vocal splendor, with a voice of indescribable beauty." A primary influence in her musical life was the late Jan DeGaetani, with whom she studied for many years. Ms. Kellock has been featured with the St. Louis Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the New World Symphony and many more. Highly acclaimed for her song recitals and chamber music performances, she is also sought after by composers for her interpretation of contemporary music. Ms. Kellock has also sung major operatic roles in Italy and Greece, toured with the Opera Company of Boston and performed with the Mark Morris Dance Company. She serves on the performing faculty of Cornell University, and is much in demand as a master class teacher.

The Ibis Camerata was formed in 2001 at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music and is made up of four of the school's most talented and accomplished doctoral graduates. Coming from varied cultural and musical backgrounds, they have been able to combine their unique talents to form one of North America's premier young ensembles. As the group explains, "The idea for this project slowly evolved as a result in our involvement in the musical life of the University's School of Music. Since our formation in 2001, the group has actively performed the works of composers at the University of Miami, most notably those of Dennis Kam, who is the chair of the department of music theory and composition. All of the composers featured on this CD are in some way linked to the University. Dennis Kam, Peter MacDonald and Lansing McLoskey are currently faculty members of the School of Music. Sofia Kraevska and Raina Murnak are graduate students and teaching assistants to Kam, and Frederic Glesser is a former student of Kam. Our ultimate goal was to create a CD that represented the diversity of sounds and variety of styles that have developed from the University of Miami's composition department."

Ruth Schonthal's compositions, which reflect the concerns of today's world, display a unique blend of deeply-rooted European traditions, depth of feeling and masterful blending of traditional and contemporary techniques. Born in Hamburg of Viennese parents, she began composing at five. She was the youngest student ever accepted at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin but, being Jewish, she was later banished. Her family fled the Nazi regime by settling in Stockholm, where her exceptional talent was recognized, leading to her being accepted at the Royal Academy of Music. Again, on the run, the family settled in Mexico City, where Schonthal studied with the famed Manuel Ponce. She eventually continued her studies at Yale under Paul Hindemith. Through the exposure to diverse influences and methods in her travels, Ruth Schonthal was able to extrapolate an unusually rich mixture of compositional techniques. She never followed "current" trends, instead finding her own unique voice. In these songs, composed both early and late in her career, one can sense the emotional qualities she considered foremost in her music. She once said that she envisioned her work as a mirror held up to a world full of complex human emotions. In short, these are works that reveal the innermost soul of a complex and fascinating composer.

Throughout his composing career Don Gillis's avowed goal was "to reach the people." And for him the surest way to do that was with "melodies that they could sing and tunes that even kids could whistle in Waxahachie or Dubuque." Born in rural Missouri, Gillis hailed from the same heartland as Virgil Thomson and Roy Harris. While still a teenager, he moved with his Depression-wracked family to Texas and it is with that iconic prairie land of cowboys and oilmen that he and his music are most often associated, thanks to works like Portrait of a Frontier Town, The Alamo and the ballet Shindig. A graduate of Texas Christian University and the North Texas State Teachers College, he pursued music with a vengeance, conducting, performing, arranging, instructing and cobbling ensembles together. Although the highlight of his professional career was producer of Arturo Toscanini's NBC broadcasts for ten years, he labored zealously at the great constant of his life, composing, with the three aspects of his personal credo - love of country, love of God, love of a good laugh - shining through piece after piece in his large output of works. This is especially true of his Symphonies. And it rings out loud and clear in the three comprising this CD - Symphonies 1 and 2, never commercially recorded before, and that bubble burst of orchestral mirth, Symphony No. 5 1/2, his best-known composition.

The title of this recording, Ostinato Fantastico, is obviously taken from the title of Blas Atehortua's work. It has a kind of double meaning in the context of the series of recordings the DePaul Wind Ensemble has created with Albany Records. An ostinato is a variation form in which a theme or pattern is repeated throughout the piece, while the musical material around it is changed or varied. In a similar way the DePaul/Albany recordings have a consistent theme of presenting works for winds of two types: First, we have tried to offer seldom or never-recorded music by important composers, music that we don't want to lose from the repertoire. Second, we have presented solo works with wind accompaniment, played by excellent soloists. As the important repertoire for winds develops and is defined over the next decades, we will need to establish and perform the emerging "canon" of wind music. Nobody knows what pieces will be important 100 years from now, but we do need to seek out the best music and insure that it doesn't fall by the wayside because it has been ignored. It is also important to provide a repertoire of excellent solo pieces with original and well-transcribed wind accompaniments. These two themes represent the ostinato of the DePaul Albany series.

It's fitting that we present a CD of American works for oboe and English horn in various chamber combinations. The song-like quality of these two instruments has made them ideal for expressing long, melancholy musical lines as well as more agitated, pithy statements. Remember how it was virtually mandatory for the slow movement of a mid-20th century American symphony to begin with a deeply introspective melody on the oboe or English horn? These chamber works express a great variety of moods and sounds and diverse, individual styles, all distinctly American. Mark Hill's versatile career has included a broad range of orchestral, chamber and solo performing along with a consistent commitment to teaching. He has performed with the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. He has also performed with the New York Woodwind Quintet, the Aspen Wind Quintet and Chamber Music Northwest, with a concentration on contemporary music such as found on this CD. A pupil of Ronald Roseman and Roger McDonald, Mr. Hill is Associate Professor of Oboe and Chamber Music at the University of Maryland School of Music.

The Firefly was the first of Friml's Broadway successes, a list that also includes High Jinks (1913), Rose Marie (1924), and The Three Musketeers (1928). Otto Harbach's libretto for The Firefly was originally intended to have music by Victor Herbert as a star vehicle for soprano Emma Trentini, but the two had an artistic falling-out, so impresario Arthur Hammerstein turned to the young Rudolf Friml, who responded with a bright and melodious score that included Giannina mia, Kiss Me, and Sympathy. At the December 2, 1912 premiere, the New York Times noted that encores were demanded for nearly every number and extolled Trentini as a "live wire...who as the Firefly proved herself a whole pyrotechnical show." Friml peaked in the 1920s and did not adapt to the changing musical theatre modes. But he remained a vigorous personality through most of the last century and died in 1972. For more than 25 years, the Ohio Light Opera has been dedicated to producing, promoting and preserving the best of the traditional operetta repertoire. These shows offer the operetta fan a little of everything: both well-known and lesser-known Gilbert and Sullivan, operettas by French, Viennese and American composers, and revivals such as The Firefly. This set includes Friml's complete musical score and most of the spoken dialogue from the 2006 production and will hopefully give the operetta aficionado a good taste of what makes this company unique.

There is a new generation of performing artists and composers who in recent years have been redefining the temporal and aesthetic dimensions of music, thus paving the way for a veritable cultural renaissance. Nowhere is this more evident than in the work of James J. Pellerite, one of the world's great virtuosi of the modern orchestral flute and no less a master of the Native American flute, which he now plays almost exclusively. Former solo flute of the Philadelphia Orchestra and a distinguished soloist and teacher for many years, Pellerite in 1995 launched a second career as a Native American flute virtuoso. His company, Zalo/JP-Publications, produces an important catalog featuring a wide selection of orchestral, chamber and solo works by living composers who share his vision of bringing the Northern Plains instrument firmly into the 21st century and to elevate it to the status of a significant new voice on the contemporary concert stage. The present recording is the most recent of his many collaborations with living composers. Should anyone still require proof that the Northern Plains flute is more than a quaintly happy find for tourists browsing gift shops for souvenirs conjuring the color and spirit of the American West, he/she has only to experience the invigorating musical diversity and consummate artistry represented by this remarkable disc.

Several currents in modern music have contributed to the present body of chamber music that includes trombone. Without question, jazz trombonists have influenced composers with their persuasive presence and ear-catching explorations of the trombone's technical and expressive capabilities. Other influences include academia, producing exceptional brass players, and the instrument's affinity for theatricality and offbeat sounds have led to the increasing presence of the trombone in the music of our time. Naturally, with the prominence of such players as Stuart Dempster, John Swallow and Christian Lindberg, major composers have been prompted to write with the trombone in mind. Hence, the remarkably diverse and striking works on this CD. David Gier began his professional career as a member of the Springfield, Massachusetts, Symphony Orchestra and with orchestras and ensembles in the northeast. He currently teaches trombone and brass at the University of Iowa and has been an active performer and clinician at various venues and workshops. Gier's students have been prizewinners in numerous solo competitions and have won trombone positions with many professional ensembles. Before moving to Iowa, Gier served for six years on the faculty of the Baylor University School of Music.

Described by the New Yorker's Andrew Porter as a composer of "fearless eloquence," Louis Karchin has received performances of his music worldwide, by groups ranging from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Louisville Orchestra, to South Korea's Veritas Musicae and the Delta Ensemble of Amsterdam, Holland. Born in Philadelphia, he went on to advanced studies at the Eastman School and Harvard University, where his teachers included Samuel Adler, Joseph Schwantner, Earl Kim, Fred Lerdahl and Leon Kirchner. As Hayes Biggs writes in his notes to this CD, "Although this disc takes its name from its final selection, Matrix and Dream, the title Matrix is apropos in more than one sense. One of the word's definitions is that of a medium or situation out of which some other entity originates, or in which such an entity is embedded. Louis Karchin's highly personal, supple and elegant musical language, evolved over the course of a distinguished career as composer and performer, is by that definition the matrix within which this music is able to take form, substance and nourishment, and consequently to take flight...many of Karchin's compositional preoccupations, with regard to both genre and gesture, are represented on this recording...all of the new worlds that you can discover on this disc - from the smallest to the largest - emanate from and are contained within Louis Karchin's matrix; they will amply repay return voyages."

Directed by the renowned Robert De Cormier, the professional vocal ensemble Counterpoint debuted in 2000. Dedicated to promoting choral chamber music and giving the public the opportunity to hear rarely performed works and unique arrangements, their concerts and recordings have a devoted following. In addition to this new CD, they can be heard on Albany TROY676, 746, 801 and 823. De Cormier writes, " I have been involved in African-American music, in one way or another, for almost 60 years. In 1948 I became the music director at Camp Unity, an interracial holiday camp, whose clientele were just about half black, one-half white. Every Sunday a chorus would be recruited from the new campers and rehearsals would begin on Monday. On Friday or Saturday night we would perform together as part of the weekend program. Almost every concert included some African-American music...in 1963 the De Cormier Singers, a professional vocal ensemble, made its debut in New York City. For the next 25 years we toured the United States and Canada. We were always an interracial group and the concert programs almost always included African-American material. Many of the songs on this new CD were originally arranged for them.

Whether it is as a composer, concert pianist or actor, Robert Owens has earned a career and respect that many would envy. He has written extensively for solo voice, with a particular emphasis on texts by great writers. As an African-American, he is quick to emphasize that his songs are not written for any particular race. They are to be sung by all people who appreciate fine song writing. He was born in Denison, Texas, but grew up in Berkeley, California, raised by his mother who taught him piano. Following her death in 1937, he continued his piano and theory studies and, at 15, performed as soloist in the premiere of his Piano Concerto. During this same time he composed his first songs, Images. These offer the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar and Waring Cuney. From there Owens went on to compose songs to the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Countee Cullen and, most notably, Langston Hughes. Over the following decades, after serving in the armed forces and studying in Europe, he continued to compose with an emphasis on vocal works, reflecting his own life, his exposure to racism, and his desire to express the core truth of the poetry he was setting. Founder of the African-American Art Song Alliance, tenor Darryl Taylor's international itinerary includes performing both in the United States and throughout Europe. He has premiered numerous works. He is much in demand as a lecturer on African-American Art Song, having given recitals and master classes at the Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music and at Cambridge College, England.

Born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Raymond Wojcik is a composer, conductor and educator. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver, his composition teachers were David Schiff and Donald Keats. His conducting studies were with George Manahan, Michael Charry and Harold Farberman. His music is emotionally direct and spontaneous, with elements of jazz in the Dance Symphony and a keen understanding of the creativity of young children in The Art Spirit, in which the composer was given the task of creating symphonic movements in response to students' artwork. Akin to Fire reflects a musical kinship the composer felt to Beethoven's Grosse Fugue, Op. 133 which he reexamined while in the middle of writing the work. But his comments about Jubilee, commissioned by the New Jersey Youth Symphony, best sum up his aesthetic: "My inspiration for this overture came from the young musicians themselves who possessed a wonderful level of energy, dedication, and love of music. I also could not help but notice a "love" of cell phones, video games and chatting when not engrossed in music making. As a result, I incorporated musical ideas that suggest those things into the compositional fabric."

It's been nearly a decade since the music of the Common Sense Composers' Collective first surfaced on CD. Their first disc challenged the rarified asceticism of the then still-reigning though waning contemporary music orthodoxy with joyous abandon. Even the disc's cover, featuring eight clearly fun-loving folks, already dented the wall of solemnity that is suggested by the ubiquitous dour tweed-suit mug shots on the covers of many contemporary music recordings. But, ultimately, it was the sheer persuasiveness of the music that crashed down those walls. This group is now entering its second decade and so far has commissioned 62 new works. The pieces contained on this new release were originally written in 1996 in collaboration with the members of the Alternate Currents Performance Ensemble. They are joined on this CD by the New Millennium Ensemble, a mixed sextet of winds, strings, piano and percussion founded in 1990. The mission of all the performers heard on this disc, remains one of collaboration and community. They workshop the compositions through a process one would find more in the dance world than in the classical music world. Many of these works, which began with Common Sense, have found a new home with The New Millennium Ensemble, underlining a new collaborative dynamic and sense of joy in music-making.

First ever audio recording of this leading fantasy author's favorite series. Arrows of the Queen, read by Carole Edie Smith, is the first book in a series centered around Valdemar, a world full of fascinating creatures and compelling characters. This story features Talia, a young girl desperate to escape the strictures of her conservative society. Her life is changed in an instance when she encounters a Companion and is chosen to replace the recently murdered Queen's Own Herald. As she begins her training Talia has no idea that a spoiled Princess, some nobly-born bullies, and a conspiracy that will threaten her life will all stand between her and the destiny she must fulfill. (Eight compact discs)

This recording features works by members of the composition faculty of the University of Iowa School of Music: Michael Eckert, Lawrence Fritts and David Gompper. The six new works presented here, all composed in the 21st century, showcase a diversity of harmonic languages and musical materials, from Gompper's post-tonal centricity to Eckert's neo-classic atonality to Fritt's use of mathematical algorithms and computer-generated timbres. Lawrence Fritts is Associate Professor of Composition and Theory and director of the Electronic Music Studios at the University. His composition teachers were Shulamit Ran, John Eaton and Ralph Shapey. Another pupil of Ralph Shapey is Michael Eckert, also an Associate Professor of Theory and Composition. He has won the Bearns Prize for Composition from Columbia University and a Charles Ives Scholarship from the National Institute of Arts and Letters. David Gompper is Professor of Composition and Director of the Center for New Music at the University. Gompper has lived and worked as a composer, teacher, conductor and pianist in England, Nigeria and, most recently, Russia. The project was sponsored by a grant from the University of Iowa Arts and Humanities Initiative.

Thomas Pasatieri has proven over the past 30 years, starting while he was still a Juilliard student, to be one of America's most significant opera composers. Among the many works to his credit are The Seagull, available on TROY579/80, and a collection entitled Divas of a Certain Age on TROY841. By 1984 he had had many operatic triumphs in this country. "But I was weary of the enormous effort it took to create a new stage work only to have it premiered and then not performed again," he writes. Around that time he left for the West Coast, working as an orchestrator for film scores, with many fascinating stories to tell of his experiences. Just the same, Pasatieri has made it clear that his true calling has been as an opera composer. With such an interest in writing for the voice, he has composed lieder and song cycles such as the ones on this disc. The cycles span some thirty years, and we both performed and dedicated to important singers for whom he has written his operas, and who recognized his superb gifts. Three Poems of James Agee "are dark and both poetry and music reflect the fearful prospects the innocent faced in the oppressive Cold War epoch. Yet the works are passionate, somehow romantic. The Oscar Wilde Poems were chosen by Pasatieri for their introspective atmosphere. A Rustling of Angels "displays innocence, optimism and simplicity, and perhaps a suggestion of divine inspiration." Six other solo songs, including the popular comic piece I Just Love My Voice, close out the program, performed by a group of singers with whom the composer has long worked. These are all works in which the composer reveals his soul, his inspirations and his love.

Award-winning composer Alvin Singleton has written music for theatre, orchestra, solo instruments and a variety of chamber ensembles. A composer-in-residence with the Atlanta Symphony in the late 1980s and a student of renowned Italian composer Goffredo Petrassi, Singleton's works have been performed by the orchestras of Boston, Pittsburgh, Houston, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Detroit and many more. Sing to the Sun is a set of five chamber works ranging from solo flute to large ensemble with chorus. Singleton exhibits in the recording of these five works the patience, appreciation of quiet subtlety, and psychological control that make for fine chamber music. Traditionally, chamber music is players' music and in that, traditionally "serious" (as are all five of the present works). But Singleton fans also expect to be caught up in the Singleton wit on one level or another - be it some unusual title or a certain odd presentation of notes laid out, usually early, in the piece itself. Both average listeners and cognoscenti find themselves caught up in wondering "what's next?" With this composer the listener is given clues that he or she is invited to participate fully in the musical experience about to unfold, something thought anathema by many recent composers.

Albany is proud to present another, truly unique recording by horn player Eric Ruske. His previous albums for horn with piano or orchestral accompaniment (TROY456, 615, 782) have been among best sellers among horn aficionados and players alike. This release presents Ruske strictly solo, with a wonderful blend of familiar and unusual works, particularly the colorful Persichetti and Ketting compositions. At the age of 20, Ruske was named Associate Principal Horn of the Cleveland Orchestra. He also toured and recorded extensively during his six-year tenure as hornist of the Empire Brass Quintet. His impressive solo career began when he won the 1986 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, First Prize in the 1987 American Horn Competition, and in 1988, the highest prize in the Concours International d'Interpretation Musicale in Reims, France. An active chamber musician, he has appeared with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, the Moab Music Festival, the Newport Music Festival and the Spoleto Festival, just to name a few. An Associate Professor and member of the faculty of Boston University since 1990, Mr. Ruske also directs the Horn Seminar at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.

This biblical story, with its historical references to specific cities, generals and kings, is accepted as canon by Roman Catholic theologians, although it doesn't appear in either Hebrew or Protestant scriptures. The Book of Judith is set in the time of the mighty Assyrian ruler Nebuchadnezzar, King of Nineveh. Seeking to expand his empire, the king sends armies, led by General Holofernes (Oloferne), to subdue neighboring kingdoms, all of whom surrender under his powerful forces. The only ones who refuse to capitulate are the Israelites, who cordon off their mountain passes and gather provisions to resist a siege. Instead of a massacre, Holofernes discovers and commandeers their water sources. Faced with drought, the elders of Israel prepare to surrender. Their leader, Prince Ozias, suggests a five-day wait, during which interval Israel's prayers for help may be heard by God. It is at this point that Scarlatti's oratorio takes up the story, depicting the entrance of the pious Judith (Giuditta) who will distract Holofernes until she is able to slay him and make her escape, displaying his severed head, causing the enemy to retreat, sparing the Israelites. Scarlatti's score is in the Italianate style of the period, and the work is largely continuo-driven, with string ritornelli concluding most of the arias. This stellar performance, with the renowned Julianne Baird in the role of Judith/Giuditta, brings this remarkable story to blazing life.

Albany is proud to present this generous selection of piano music by one of America's most important composers. Leon Kirchner is one of the last of that stalwart breed who first came to prominence in the late 1940's and early 1950s. A pupil of Bloch, Schoenberg and Sessions at the University of California, Berkeley, Kirchner's music definitely shows affinities with Schoenberg in outlook and temperament. No less than Schoenberg, Kirchner is both an ardent modernist and a volatile Romantic, a composer whose sophisticated awareness of the past informs a restless search for authenticity. A classic example would be his Piano Concerto No. 1, first recorded over 50 years ago by the composer himself with Dmitri Mitropoulos and the New York Philharmonic. Like much of the music on this disc, there is edginess and a tough demeanor, but there is real music present, in the "traditional" sense. This significant new release reissues classic performances by Leon Fleisher and Peter Serkin as well as presenting important recent pieces such as the Sonata No. 2 and The Forbidden.

Morris Rosenzweig was born in New Orleans, where he grew up among the tailors, merchants and strong-willed women of an extended family which has lived in southern Louisiana since the mid 1890s. His works have been widely presented throughout the United States, as well as in South America, Europe, Mexico and Israel. His catalog of works includes pieces for orchestra, various chamber ensembles, compositions for live instruments and electronics, two song cycles, two piano cycles, solo pieces and one opera. He was educated at the Eastman School of Music, the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. Points and Tales is a cyclic composition for piano in 12 movements. What is striking about the work is the overall austerity of its language: its searching, spare and unadorned expression. The listener is invited to savor the beauty of harmonies exquisitely voiced, the play of simple, unhurried melodies, and the pure tones of the piano. A Certain Round of Events, based on original, Italian and Chinese texts and words of Rilke, consists of nine songs plus a prelude, interlude and postlude, and Rosenzweig conceives of the texts in terms of three concurrent "senses of time": subjective, seasonal and unchanging.

Looking back over the past 100 years, it would seem that the string quartet has been the most popular outlet for contemporary composers' most intimate thoughts. It may have taken longer for the unique blend of violin, piano and cello to catch up in terms of repertoire, but this remarkable disc displays the diverse voices that can be heard in this form. The Finn Segerstam has been best known as an orchestral conductor and a very prolific composer (as of January 2nd of this year, he had composed 173 symphonies). This Trio is a perfect example of the free-flowing, almost improvisational style he calls "free-pulsative." Needless to say, Hans Werner Henze has now achieved status as one of the world's most significant composers, and his early Kammersonate reflects the neo-classical influences of the post-War era. Both Sharafyan and Mansurian are Armenian. Sharafyan's music is rooted in ancient Armenian culture, while Mansurian's approach is in a more personalized, mystical vein. Finally, the Baird Trio's cellist, Jonathon Golove, has contributed a work using material from an opera based on Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest. The Baird Trio, in residence at the University of Buffalo, performs a wide range of repertoire, devoting particular attention to rarely heard and recent original works for their medium. The members believe the piano trio has a significant role to play in 21st century musical life.