Catalog

This disc includes a premiere recording made in 1992 with Leon Kirchner conducting his Music for Orchestra with the orchestra he founded at Harvard along with two historic releases from the SONY Columbia catalog, both featuring Leon Kirchner, as a pianist in his Piano Concerto No. 1 with Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting, recorded 1956 and as a conductor in Lily (for soprano and chamber ensemble), recorded 1973. Leon Kirchner (1919-2009), composer, conductor, and virtuoso pianist, was recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal in 2009, and an Honorary Doctorate at Harvard in 2001. He received the New York Music Critics Circle award, the Naumburg Award, Pulitzer Prize, and the Freidheim Award, and commissions from the Ford, Fromm, and Koussevitzky Foundations, the New York Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Symphony, Spoleto and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals, the Boston Symphony, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Kirchner studied with Arnold Schoenberg, Roger Sessions, and Ernest Bloch. He was composer-in-residence and a performer at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Tanglewood Music Center, Tokyo Music Today (Takemitsu Festival), and the Spoleto, Charleston, Aldeburgh, and Marlboro Music Festivals.

Daring and energy are the two basic elements with which Leonardo Balada approaches his very personal compositions. This total musician has blended his strong vocation with his teaching since 1970 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where he is University Professor of Composition. He started his piano and theory studies in his native Barcelona, finishing in 1953. Then he studied composition at the New York College of Music and the Juilliard School. The fact that he finished his studies in 1960 could suggest that he was part of the so-called "generation of '51" of Spanish composers. Because of geographical distance he did not participate in the early activities of that group, which was so important to the Spanish music of the sixties. This does not mean he did not identify with them esthetically and ideologically. At the beginning, his compositional direction did not conform to that of his contemporaries, who generally followed the paths of Paris or Darmstadt. The almost obligatory twelve-tone style was not attractive to him. Having left the European continent allowed him the possibility of approaching other musical languages. This he did as one will hear in the broad selection of his orchestral music presented on this disc.

Let Evening Come: American Songs Old and New collects the songs of three American composers, stretching across time and a variety of styles. The early 20th-century pianist Frank La Forge was an accompanist to the greatest singers of his era, but also found time to write beautiful and effective art songs for his collaborators to perform in concert. Robert Spillman is a modern counterpart to La Forge, having worked for years as a pianist and opera conductor before returning to composition in retirement. His songs lie at the heart of this disc, capturing the inspiration of an intriguing group of poets. From the nature-inspired ruminations of Sara Teasdale and Jane Kenyon to the comic world of Alice N. Persons, Spillman's songs are moving, and in some cases, sly and amusing. Well-known opera and song composer Lori Laitman is represented by two stirring arias from her 2016 opera The Scarlet Letter.

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.

Baritone Robert Barefield's third recording for Albany Records includes four song cycles by American composers Scott Wheeler, David Conte, Larry Alan Smith, and Kendra D'Ercole. Two of the cycles, Wheeler's Light Enough and D'Ercole's Laughs & Sighs were written for Mr. Barefield. Conte's cycle of four songs was composed between 1998 and 2003; while Smith found inspiration for his cycle through a roadside marker about the poet John Burroughs. Robert Barefield has performed as soloist with organizations throughout the United States and in Europe and is noted for his championing of American composers. He is on the faculty at the Hartt School. Pianist Kelly Horsted enjoys an active career in New York City as an accompanist, music director and vocal coach and has enjoyed a long relationship with American Opera Projects.

Taken together, the works on this portrait album of composer John Liberatore, are an eclectic mélange of instrumentations and affects, sometimes whimsical or wistful, dark or light. But each of them was composed in the same way, and in close proximity to each other. Liberatore is a composer, pianist, and one of the world's few glass harmonica players. Described by critics as "enchanting" and "truly magical," his music seeks poignancy through levity, ambiguity through transparency, and complexity within simple textures. The recipient of numerous awards and commissions, his music has received hundreds of performances in venues around the world, including The Kennedy Center, Carnegie's Weill Hall, and the Seoul Arts Center, among many others. A graduate of Eastman and Syracuse University, he is assistant professor of composition and theory at the University of Notre Dame.

Baritone Randall Scarlata and pianist Laura Ward pored over dozens of scores in planning this recording. Central to their project was a focus on American composers, and they wanted a personal connection with both the texts and their musical interpretations. Two cycles kept rising to the top: Benjamin Boyle's Le passage des rêves, and Robert Maggio's Forgiving Our Fathers. While the styles of these two compositions were markedly different, the performers were drawn to the gift for narrative the works share and their color palettes that evoke other times and places. The other works, by Charles Ives, Samuel Barber, and Elliott Carter, were chosen to complement these two cycles. Known for his versatility and consummate musicianship, Randall Scarlata's repertoire spans five centuries and 16 languages. A sought-after interpreter of new music, he has given world premieres of works by many well-known composers including George Crumb, Ned Rorem, Lori Laitman, and Samuel Adler, among many others. His extensive discography includes recordings on the Chandos, Naxos, CRI, Gasparo, Arabesque, Bridge, Albany, and Sono Luminus labels. Pianist Laura Ward is Artistic Director of Lyric Fest, a unique vocal recital series in Philadelphia. As a distinguished collaborative pianist she is known for both her technical ability and vast knowledge of repertoire and styles.

Lines, the title of this imaginative program, beguilingly performed, links pupils to teachers in three principal strands: Bloch-Sessions-Harbison; Lutoslawski-Stucky-Waggoner and Weesner; and Boulanger-Carter. While it is difficult to overestimate the influence of a powerful mentor, not all mentor relationships develop in formal arrangements. Carter was deeply influenced by Sessions, and was close with him, without having enrolled as his student. Both Waggoner and Weesner forged close relationships with Harbison, and in different works reveal Harbison's influence as much as Stucky's. While in his early works Harbison often exhibited Sessions' influence, his baroque sensibilities have more in common with the neoclassical predispositions of Bloch, his "grand-teacher." The criss-crossing of the lines hints at the wealth and variety of music influence and tradition. Acclaimed cellist Caroline Stinson offers magnificent performances of this repertoire, two of which are world premiere recordings (Andrew Waggoner's Le Nom and Anna Weesner's Possible Stories). Noted for her vibrant lyricism and fresh interpretations, Ms. Stinson is on the faculty of The Juilliard School.

Lynn Klock has been an enthusiastic participant in new music for the saxophone for more than 40 years, with dozens of composers having written new works for him. This recording features Klock with conductor Dennis Zeisler and the Virginia Wind Symphony in new concertos for soprano and alto saxophone and wind ensemble. It follow a previous recording on Albany Records of new music written for Lynn Klock for baritone saxophone and piano. Lynn Klock has appeared as a soloist throughout North America as well as in Russia, Europe, South America, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Canada. Klock has presented master classes at national and international conferences as well as at educational institutions across the United States and overseas. He is Professor of Saxophone at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a member of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra.

Zvonimir Nagy is a Croatian-born, American composer, performer, and music scholar based in Pittsburgh. He studied at Northwestern University, Texas Christian University, and the Academy of Music in Zagreb, Croatia. He is the recipient of composition awards and grants including the Seattle Symphony Composition Prize, the Iron Composer Award and the Croatian Music Institute Award. He is on the faculty at Duquesne University. This recording features chamber works for varying size ensembles ranging from a work for solo flute to a work for four cellos and one for piano, accordion, and electronics.

Clarinetists Jessica Lindsey and Christy Banks formed the Spatial Forces Duo in 2008 and since that time have toured the U.S., Canada, China, Italy, New Zealand, and Belgium. Their goal is to stretch the sonic possibilities of the traditional clarinet duo and have commissioned composers of diverse backgrounds to write works for them. Christy Banks is on the faculty at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, and has studied at the University of Nebraska and Florida State University. She is bass clarinetist for the Lincoln Symphony Orchestra. Jessica Lindsey, on the faculty at UNC Charlotte, and has studied at the University of Nebraska and the University of Colorado. She performs with the Nebraska Chamber Orchestra.

Arguably, America’s greatest cultural contribution to the world has been jazz. It may be argued with equal force that one of the most important shrines in the history of jazz was Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem. Founded in 1938, Minton’s Playhouse became the setting for a revolution in jazz. Virtually everyone who was anyone in the world of jazz made his or her way to Minton’s during this period. While Minton’s is most famous for the seminal role it played in the Bebop revolution of the 1940s, the club had a vital existence through the early 1960s as a magnet for musicians and continued to operate until 1974, when a fire led to the abandonment of the Cecil Hotel where Minton’s was housed. Now, some 40 years later, Minton’s is back. Minton’s is an ultra-sophisticated jazz supper club that pays homage to its musical heritage with nightly concerts on the venue’s original stage presented by a group of veteran musicians. This recording offers the best of the new Minton’s with live recordings, celebrating its roots with an eye towards the future.

Tippett's Praeludium was commissioned for the 40th anniversary of the BBC, in 1962. It was first performed on November 14 that year, at a concert in the Royal Festival Hall, given by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Antal Dorati. This work was composed during the time Tippett composed his opera King Priam. Tippett's work Triumph has the full title Triumph: A Paraphrase of "The Mask of Time" and was composed in conjunction with The Mask of Time. Its 6th movement is titled "The Triumph of Life," a grotesque vision of the "triumphal" progress of a chariot throwing bodies off in all directions: this is complemented by the depiction of Shelley's own death, drowning at sea in an attempted defiance of a storm; and the movement ends with the burning of the body of the poet (a legal requirement of the period) though legend has it, the heart would not burn. Triumph evokes this episode. The Concerto for Two Continents for Synthesizer and Wind Orchestra is Ivan Tcherepnin's fourth commissioned work for the American Wind Symphony. It was premiered in Vaasa, Finland with the composer as soloist on the synthesizer. The concerto can be heard as a joyful celebration of the power of music to cross borders and bring peoples together through a commonly shared world of tones and rhythms. Michael Colgrass' the Winds of Nagual is based on the writings of Carlos Castaneda about his 14-year apprenticeship with Juan Mattise, a Yaqui Indian sorcerer from northwestern Mexico.. Castaneda met Don Juan while researching hallucinogenic plants for his master's thesis in anthropology at UCLA. Juan becomes Castaneda's mentor and trains him in Pre-Columbian techniques of sorcery, the overall purpose of which is to find the creative self- what Juan calls the "Nagual."

Here is another remarkable release in our ongoing survey of the music of David Maslanka, a composer best-known for his output for wind ensemble, including his 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th Symphonies and major concertante works, most of which can be found on the Albany label. This recording presents a less-familiar side of the composer: music for symphony orchestra. Of these works, Maslanka has written, "My first diary entries on 11:11 are from 1998. It was then that I began noticing the time 11:11 on digital clocks. For no apparent reason, and far more often than might be coincidence, my eye would be drawn to a clock and it would read 11:11. At first I thought it was amusing, and then it became a bit spooky, as if something were trying to get my attention. I began to meditate on 11:11 and received images of impending crisis, and even disaster. Then I decided to write a piece out of those feelings. Surprisingly when the music did finally come out it was not in crisis mode. It is for the most part filled with a bright and hopeful spirit, a "new dance at the edge of the world"...I now believe that the earth is a living thing, and that humans are one part of its consciousness. I have been aware of a powerful "voice of the earth" for many years, and especially in my adopted western Montana...One of my life axioms is that there is no progress without crisis, and there is crisis to go through before we come to a right relationship with the planet. The new Symphony is the expression of hope for that right relationship."

Heather Gilligan's music has been described as honest, direct, and compassionate while exploring emotions from humor to anguish. Her music has been performed to critical acclaim at the New York Choral Festival, the Washington D.C. International Music Festival, and by the American Modern Ensemble, Lorelei Ensemble, and Arneis String Quartet, among many others. She is on the faculty at Keene State College and a member of the Boston Composers Coalition. She received her DMA in Composition from Boston University and her MM from the Longy School of Music. She also holds a BS in Chemistry from Lehigh University. This recording contains six song cycles -- each set for soprano -- but the instrumentation is varied. Living in Light is scored for soprano and cello; Garden Songs for soprano, trumpet, and piano; Mixed Metaphors for soprano and piano; Winged Reflections for soprano, saxophone, and piano; Battlegrounds for soprano and string quartet; and Finer Points for soprano and percussion.

The music of the outstanding American composer Peter Lieuwen has been described by The New York Times as "an attractive array of shimmering, shuddering sonorities." This recording explores 20 years of music-making in four different genres: large orchestra, small ensemble, solo concerto and chamber concerto.

Dan Locklair, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, holds a Master of Sacred Music degree from the School of Sacred Music of Union Theological Seminary in New York City and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Presently, Dr. Locklair is Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Music at Wake Forest University. His prolific output includes symphonic works, a ballet, an opera and numerous solo, chamber, vocal and choral compositions. A professional organist at the age of 14. From 1973 to 1982, he was Church Musician of First Presbyterian Church in Binghamton, New York, and an instructor of music at Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York. His teachers have included Ezra Laderman, Samuel Adler and Joseph Schwantner.

Dan Locklair, a native of Charlotte, North Carolina, holds a Master of Sacred Music degree from the School of Sacred Music of Union Theological Seminary in New York City and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music. Presently, he is Composer-in-Residence and Professor of Music at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In its centennial year, Dr. Locklair was named 1996 AGO Composer of the Year by the American Guild of Organists, a distinguished honor awarded yearly to an American composer who has not only enriched the organ repertoire, but who has also made significant contributions to symphonic and concert music. His 1995 composition, Since Dawn (A Tone Poem for Narrator, Chorus and Orchestra based on Maya Angelou's On the Pulse of Morning), is the first musical setting of Maya Angelou's well-known and important poem commissioned for the 1993 Inauguration of President Clinton.

This tribute to the American composer-percussionist Michael Manion (1952-2012) captures a live 2009 concert held in his honor at the University of Illinois. Presented by the University of Illinois Percussion Ensemble–conducted by its director, William Moersch, and student conductors Adam Walton and Mark Eichenberger—the concert also featured the premiere of Stephen Lett’s Junta–and of Robert Fleisher’s Maniondala, originally composed for Michael Manion. 

This broad spectrum of music written between 1927 and 2009 includes some of the earliest percussion ensemble compositions—by Alexander Tcherepnin, Amadeo Roldán, Henry Cowell, Dmitri Shostakovich, and John Cage & Lou Harrison. Three 21st-century works receiving their first commercially-released recordings here include Fleisher’s Maniondala (for solo malletKAT), Stephen Lett’s Junta (for three percussionists), and Michael Manion’s Long Roll II (for percussion quartet). 

The University of Illinois Percussion Ensemble was established in 1950 and specializes in the performance of traditional and contemporary repertoire for small and large groups. Soloist Gregory Beyer is a Fulbright Scholar, composer, educator, and “prodigiously talented percussionist” (Chicago Classical Review).

For his third recording on Albany Records, flutist Leonard Garrison has chosen a diverse program of music for flutes by American composers. Music for flute and piano, solo flute and solo alto flute represent some of the best repertoire written for this family of instruments. Garrison, a faculty member at the University of Idaho and flutist for the Northwest Wind Quintet is principal flute of the Walla Walla Symphony and artistic director of the Red Lodge Music Festival. A former member of the flute section of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Garrison has served as chairman of the National Flute Association.

In the early 1900s, Nationalism in Argentina, which coincided with the various strong artistic national currents throughout Europe and the United States, was competing with the other "isms": post-romanticism, neoclassicism, expressionism, futurism, etc. It was the era of constant searching for an individual voice, original style, and the desperate need to "belong" to an "ism." Nationalism in Argentina was at its peak during the late 1800s through the early decades of the 20th century. This recording encompasses works written in different styles and idioms, each with a unique compositional personality, but at the same time having one distinctive quality in common: expressing the Argentine soul in sound. Whether it is using traditional, folkloric or popular motives within the frame of Romanticism, Neoclassicism or Modernism all these composers have a common thread uniting them: a respect and understanding of piano writing, and a skillful and resourceful way of bringing out the best of the instrument's colors. Argentine Pianist Mirian Conti (who can also be heard on TROY299, Poems for Piano) enjoys a growing reputation as a musician whose performances combine technical brilliance with striking originality and artistic insight. A Juilliard graduate, her vast repertoire encompasses composers from both North and South America.

Lou Harrison was one of the most influential percussion composers and innovators in the United States. In fact, he was one of the great composers of the 20th century -- a pioneer in the use of alternate tunings, world music influences, and new instruments. The percussion ensemble at Utah Valley University with violinist Donna Fairbanks perform some of his major works including a concerto for violin and percussion. Percussionist Doug Smith, director of Percussion UVU, is also an active freelance musician in Salt Lake City with groups includng the Utah Symphony, Utah Opera, and Ballet West. He is a graduate of Rice University and the University of Central Missouri. Violinist Donna Fairbanks has presented recitals and masterclasses in Europe, China, Mexico, Brazil and throughout the United States. She has recorded for MSR Classics, 4TAY, Tantar and Albany Records. Pianist Hilary Demske, who performs in the Varied Trio, has performed in prestigious venues across multiple continents, appearing annually in China since 2011. She is a Steinway Artist and has recorded multiple CDs for Albany Records.

Louis Karchin was born in Philadelphia in 1951. His advanced musical training at Eastman and Harvard University included composition studies with Samuel Adler, Joseph Schwantner, Earl Kim, Fred Lerdahl, Arthur Berger and Leon Kirchner. He is a recipient of the Tanglewood Koussevitsky Award, the Bearns Prize from Columbia University, and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts. This new release exemplifies two complementary trends in Louis Karchin's recent vocal output: an ever-increasing comfort with and mastery of large-scale vocal and dramatic forms, powerfully represented here by Orpheus, and a concomitant reawakening of interest in the more intimate medium of voice and piano, illustrated by a choice and varied selection of his latest songs, which run the gamut from the most simple and restrained in texture and gesture to the most intricate, mercurial and virtuosic. Listeners whose taste in American music (particularly vocal) of a more advanced style will greatly appreciate this new release. If Karchin's style can summed up easily, one could say it exhibits the intensity of Kirchner (such as his vocal/chamber work Lily) combined with the spacious, impressionistic colors found in Schwantner's music.

Richard Pearson Thomas is equally at home writing works for the concert hall and the stage (including the Off-Off Broadway hit "Parallel Lives") and "Ossessione" is his modern counterpart to the "standard" repertoire of 24 Italian Art Songs, with a re-examining of the texts casting them through a modern perspective. The first performance with John Muriello led to a collaboraton, including Thomas' unique adaptation of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," displaying Muriello's remarkable abilities as a singing actor. As a novel bonus, this CD also includes their sparkling interpretations of classic pop songs about love such as Arlen's "That Old Black Magic" and Richard Rodgers' "Bewitched."

Leo Sowerby's choral music has never been out of the repertory and several of his works for Christmas, particularly this collection's title anthem, Love Came Down at Christmas, and the Epiphany anthem, Now There Lightens Upon Us, are prominent among the reasons why. This collection, which includes nearly all of Sowerby's Christmas music, presents a comprehensive overview; from his very first, A Carol for New Year's Day, dating from his eighteenth year, to A Prayer for Christmas, composed in his 72nd year for the choir of his last parish church, Christ Church, Georgetown. From the immediately engaging arrangements of traditional folk tunes, to the soaring vocal heights and harmonic moodiness of the a cappella A Great and Mighty Wonder to the virtuosic choral-Organ collaborations, the composer displays a sure and ever-changing harmonic spectrum woven brilliantly into the choral fabric. All of these carols are a true testament to Leo Sowerby's craft and faith and his convictions of the joy and splendor of this magnificent season. This disc contains some magnificent music, appealing no matter what the season.

This unusual, beautifully sung recording by the University of Miami Chorale is their second release on Albany Records. The Chorale was founded in 1993 and has established itself as one of the nation's leading collegiate choral ensembles. Noted for its innovative and versatile programming, the Chorale prides itself in singing literature of the Twentieth Century. Jo-Michael Scheibe is a Professor and Program Director of Choral Studies at the University of Miami. He is widely recognized for his work with contemporary choral literature, new music commissions and young composers. Five Hebrew Love Songs by Eric Whitacre was commissioned for the Chorale. The other grouping to note on this recording is an eclectic missa brevis, put together from masses by William Byrd and Frank Martin.

Best known for his opera, Blake, his art songs and choral writing, Harrison Leslie Adams has made significant contributions to the genres of vocal and instrumental music. Currently a full time composer living in his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, his music has earned him national attention. He graduated from Oberlin. Among his teachers were Herbert Elwell, Joseph Wood, Robert Starer and Vittorio Giannini. It is appropriate that this first compact disc dedicated to his music be of his songs for he is certainly one of the most gifted and immediately lyrical composers of our time. About Darryl Taylor the great MET tenor George Shirley writes: "It was a foregone conclusion that Darryl Taylor would one day record the works of composer H. Leslie Adams. From the day of our first meeting in Los Angeles in the mid-1980's, it was apparent to me that this young tenor was an artist with a two-fold mission: to champion the works of African-American composers, and to commission and otherwise encourage composers of whatever race or ethnicity to create new works for the singing voice. This CD recording of songs from the prolific pen of Leslie Adams is a shining example of Dr. Taylor's sterling artistry and dedication to the perpetuation and performance of the American art song.

All of the composers on this recording are associated with the Second New England School of composition centered around Boston in the last few decades of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th. Each joined the emerging trend at that time to present classical-style music, steeped in European technique and training that nevertheless demonstrated an American spirit in terms of text and use of folk or local flavor. Edward MacDowell, the first of this wave of composers, inspired the rest and his contemporary George Chadwick co-led the Second New England movement and taught several of the other composers heard here. The performers include baritone Tod Fitzpatrick, who leads an active and distinguished career as a singer, teacher, and researcher; mezzo Kimberly James, who has performed with the Opera Theater of St. Louis and Santa Fe Opera, among many other credits; soprano Rebecca Sherburn, who is on the faculty at Chapman University and known for her championing of contemporary composers; and pianist Louise Thomas, who is an associate dean at Chapman University.

Love Comes In At The Eye is a recording of songs and instrumental works by Kevin Puts, Ned Rorem, and James Scott Balentine. All Americans, these composers vary in age from 46 (Puts), to 70 (Balentine), to 95 (Rorem), so there a wide spectrum of compositional styles that offers an outstanding listening experience. With works for voice and piano; voice and chamber ensemble; a work for voice and cello; and two works for flute and piano, the recording gives the feel of being part of an audience for a chamber music concert. The performers each have distinguished careers and all participate in the Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society concerts.

Lowell Liebermann is one of the most frequently performed and recorded living American composers. He has written more than 100 works in all genres and his compositions have been released on compact disc by more than 40 labels. Among his lesser-known works are those for two pianos, of which this is the first recording. Comprised of Jeffrey and Karen Savage, 88 Squared Piano Duo won first place at the 2009 Ellis Piano Duo Competition and was awarded the Abild Prize in American music. Active in commissioning and performing new works for piano duo, 88 Squared has performed around the United States, as well as in Canada and Singapore, where they presented the international premieres of Lowell Liebermann's Sonata for Two Pianos. Both pianists are graduates of the Juilliard School and on the faculty at Washington State University.

The three works of the distinguished American composer Lowell Lieberman contained on this recording all have a German connection that is reflective not only of Liebermann's family heritage but also of formative time that he spent in Germany as a student. Liebermann is one of America's most frequently performed and recorded composers with orchestras worldwide having performed his works. His compositions have been recorded on more than 80 compact discs and his Piano Concerto No. 2 received a Grammy nomination. He has served as Composer-in-Residence of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Pacific Music Festival and the Saratoga Center for the Performing Arts. Three cycles — one for soprano and piano; the second for soprano, viola and piano; and the last for soprano, baritone and piano duet combine poignancy, humor and heartfelt emotion.

It is a mistake to generalize about the music of a composer with an oeuvre as broad as Lowell Liebermann's--and not only because his music ranges from a body of widely performed piano works and chamber music, to a pair of acclaimed operas, to the body of works for large orchestra of which this recording presents just a selection. In a single piece, we can hear the centuries of music history absorbed into his omnivorous style, from the lyrical melodies and expansive, chromatic harmonies associated with the music of the so-called Romantic period, to non-tonal, atonal, and even twelve-tone elements. Brilliantly performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Grant Llewellyn, this recording illuminates Liebermann's compositional voice. One of America's most frequently performed and recorded composers, Lowell Liebermann has served as composer-in-residence for many organizations, including the Dallas Symphony and was the first composer to win the Composers' Invitational Award of the Van Cliburn Piano Competition.