Catalog

From the well-known (Ran, Adler, Daugherty) to the less well-known (Bryant, Ruo, Ross), this series continues to offer music of distinction and variety with comments by each of the composers preceding the actual performance. The works evoke programmatic concepts, particularly Shulamit Ran's Vessels of Courage and Hope, inspired by the tragic story of the voyage of the SS. President Warfield (Exodus 1947) during World War II. The ship carried Jewish Holocaust refugees who were refused permission to land in Palestine and were forcibly returned to Germany.

The music on this disc came to be out of a unique collaboration between three artists spanning three generations: José Limon, Jon Magnussen and Carla Maxwell, the artistic director for the Limón Dance Company. After Limón's death, the ballet Winged was revived. There was a need for a new score and Magnussen was chosen from a pool of graduate students at Juilliard to write the music. Because that collaboration proved so successful, Carla Maxwell asked Magnussen to write a new score for Psalm when she revived the dance.

The Palisades Virtuosi was established in 2003 to promote and enrich the repertoire for flute, clarinet and piano. Their programs combine standard repertoire with works that are a product of its aggressive and zealous commissioning program. More than 20 composers have received commissions and this recording, their second on Albany Records, highlights five of these. From the oldest composer, Frank Levy, born in 1930, to Carlos Franzetti and Allen Shawn, both born in 1948, to Caroline Newman and Gary Eskow, sharing 1951 as their birth years, this recording give us a range of styles and generations, all exquisitely performed by the ensemble.

Argentinian-born Désirée Halac presents a beautifully performed recital of songs by Carlos Guastavino. The obituary written for The Guardian called Guastavino the most quietly distinctive voice in 20th century Argentinian music. His distillation of local folk elements into an avowedly romantic-nationalist idiom was unique and markedly different from his colleagues. Guastavino wrote some 300 works, more than half of them the delightful songs, often winsome or tinged with sadness, on which his reputation rests.

The Refuge is the fruition of the Houston Grand Opera's commitment to connect with its community. The brainchild of General Director Anthony Freud, the idea was to commission an opera based on the experiences of the ethnically-varied immigrants who make Houston their home. The libretto, written by Leah Lax, is based on the oral histories of families from Africa, Central America, Vietnam, Pakistan and India who have made their way to Houston and made it their home. Their courageous journeys make this an American opera in the truest sense. Their stores are eloquently captured in music by the Houston-native, Christopher Theofanidis.

This recording of the choral music of Margaret Meier features A SOCSA Quilt, which details the journey, through words and music, of survivors of childhood sexual abuse from the distressing memories of post-traumatic shock through healing and recovery. Margaret Meier received her Bachelor's degree from Eastman and her Ph.D. in composition from UCLA. She has taught at a number of universities and is currently on the faculty at Mt. San Antonio College in Walnut, California. This CD represents the core of her musical passion: music that expresses life experience and that celebrates connection to the love and care of God.

This recording of music by Peter Boyer centers around a commission by conductor Lawrence Golan to write a work to be performed in concert immediately following Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony. The idea was that the new work, while not intended to be in the style of Tchaikovsky, would share some musical material so as to be intrinsically connected to it and find a natural place in concert programming. Peter Boyer, born in 1970, received his D.M.A. from the Hartt School. He studied with John Corigliano, then relocated to Los Angeles where he studied film music with Elmer Bernstein. His music has received more than 200 performances by 70 orchestras. His major work Ellis Island: The Dream of America received a Grammy Award nomination.

Two one-act operas by the incomparable Lee Hoiby: Bon Appétit! was written for Jean Stapleton in her late career with music draped over the words and gestures of Julia Child, the mother-of-all foodies. This is the Rill Speaking, with libretto by Mark Shulgasser, is based on a seminal early work by playwright Lanford Wilson, first produced in 1965. It is of the genre of plotless, multivocal evocations of the 20th century small town. Into this theme Wilson introduced that of the birth of the writer, and his short play observes the seed of creativity. Hoiby's musical setting is water to that seed, bringing forth new branches, leaves and berries.

The collection of classic and original rags offered by Gary Smart on this recording celebrates the lyrical side of this quintessentially American music. The ragtime genre is diverse, more so than the casual listener might think. There is the folk rag tradition, the brilliant, aggressive Eastern rag tradition, and the many interesting takes on ragtime composition that span the entire twentieth century from Artie Mathews to Charles Ives to William Albright and beyond. But Scott Joplin's classical musicality remains the source of Smart's inspiration. Joplin's marriage of a singing African-American rhythmic polyphony with the harmonic and textural structures of the European classical tradition is dazzling in its effectiveness and Mozartian in its elegance.

Leon Kirchner's life has been liberally peppered with moments of recognition for his powerful and innovative music. Both the first and second quartets heard on this recording received the Critics Circle Prize; the third received the Pulitzer. While still an undergraduate, he was accepted into Arnold Schoenberg's graduate composition seminar at UCLA. He has received many honors and prizes, including membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was a professor at Harvard University for 25 years. This recording includes his fourth string quartet, written in 2007 when Kirchner was 87, for the Orion String Quartet, who are able champions of his music.

The moods of the works on this survey of Eleanor Cory's chamber music range from serious introspection (Three Songs) to playful exuberance (Chasing Time). Beginning to be recognized as a major force in contemporary music, Ms. Cory has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund and the Fromm Foundation, among many others. Her music is performed by orchestras and ensembles ranging from the Gregg Smith Singers to the New Jersey Symphony to Earplay. Ms. Cory is on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music Prep Division and Kingsborough Community College.

Since its inception the Mirror Visions Ensemble has explored song repertoire from a number of angles. The initial interest was the back-to-back performance of multiple settings of a single text, leading to programs built around favorite portraits. This has been followed by musical travelogues and concerts at museums that feature music with a connection to the exhibit or museum. During the last decade, the ensemble has commissioned 69 new works, two of which are presented on this recording. Berg's Lincoln Letters is set to texts more personal than political, while Hagen's Songs from Dear Youth are set to letters from the Civil War. Platt's From Noon To Starry Night is a cantata based on a selection of Walt Whitman's poems, including the roughneck Whitman, the democratic Whitman, the transcendentalist Whitman, Whitman the "lover of comrades," and Whitman the bard of war.

The exceptional clarinetist Sean Osborn gives magnificent performances of these staples of the chamber music repertoire. Sean Osborn has traveled Europe and the US as a soloist and chamber musician, and traveled the world during his 11 years with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. He has also performed as guest principal clarinet with the New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, Seattle Symphony, and the American Symphony Orchestra. Recently appointed Clarinet Teacher at the University of Washington, Sean is currently based in Seattle, composing, teaching, and touring.

Highlighting this recording of vocal works by Harold Blumenfeld is his half-hour Baudelaire cycle for orchestra with baritone and mezzo coloratura, Vers Satanique, in a world premiere recording. The work was long in evolving, beginning life scored for three voices and instrumental ensemble. It was not until numerous reworkings that Blumenfeld was fully satisfied with the version you hear so magnificently performed. Harold Blumenfeld is a composer given to language, opera and the human voice as this recording so dramatically demonstrates.

The songs heard on this recording are the outgrowth of several recital projects by Valerie Errante and Jeffry Peterson. Both artists are professors of music at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and have collaborated with all of the composers whose works are represented. Richard Faith (b.1926) was professor of piano at the University of Arizona in Tucson until his retirement in 1988. John Downey, who died in 2004 was on the faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Henry Mollicone is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and is currently teaching at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont. Yehuda Yannay is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and is the creator of more than 100 works for virtually all musical media. Stephen Paulus is one of America's most prolific and accomplished composers, with more than 200 works to his credit.

Jack Beeson's musical background resembles those of many another contemporary composer but his storyline diverges from the expected mid-century composer-in-formation's path when he chose to study in New York City with Bela Bartok rather than go to France to work with Nadia Boulanger. His loyalty to Columbia University, where he has worked for more than 63 years, again, breaks the mold. Few of his colleagues can boast of such singular interweaving of individual creativity and organizational fealty. Widely known as he is for his operas, Beeson is no slouch in other areas of vocal music. In addition to his ten operas, he has written many songs and a good number of choral works, seven of which are featured on this recording. The individuality that marks his creative output is evident, showing itself in his selection of texts.

Edmund Campion completed his doctoral work at Columbia University with Mario Davidovsky before attending the Paris Conservatory to study composition with Gérard Grissey. He has explained his approach to composition in an interview with the Computer Music Journal: "Emerging technologies have been the generative source for most of my musical explorations...There is nothing new here. For Chopin, it was the modern piano, and for Schaeffer, it was the tape recorder. Finally, there is no distinction between acoustic sound, natural sound, or electronic sound. Everything is integrated with the full spectrum of all possibly sounds...I hope I am coming full circle, back to the essential musical material, it music that is made just for hearing."

Lecolion Washington, Jr., a faculty member at the University of Memphis, has put together an intriguing mix of works for bassoon by African-American composers. Ranging from William Grant Still, who was born in 1895 to Daniel Bernard Roumain, born in 1970, the collection offers a concise history of African-Americans composers who have concentrated on classical music. Altogether a beautifully performed concert program of music for bassoon.

The virtuoso pianist Pedja Muzijevic was turned on to the music of John Cage by dancers. As he explains, "Mikhail Baryshnikov introduced me to the ethereal In a Landscape and we subsequently used it in our "Solos with Piano or not..." program. Then Trisha Brown choreographed a few of the Sonatas and Interludes and asked me to play them with her company... I promptly fell in love with the strange and interesting world of Sonatas and Interludes and started thinking that it would be wonderful to expose them to a variety of other music... Rest assured this program has no underlining story, title or deep meaning... Putting dried figs in a pork stew doesn't make any sense... It does taste good though!"

The joy we feel in anticipating the sun's return after the winter solstice is greatly magnified by the spiritual light that comes with Christmas. This recording, Christmas Joy in Latvia, is a collection of new musical works to enrich the season's array of colors. The essence of the CD is expressed by its title: it highlights age-old values in a contemporary fashion. The old world and its traditions change with each new year.

The works from On Course represent a broad cross section of sonic and stylistic moments created over an almost 24 year period by composer Laurie Altman. The generative links between all the pieces seem to be an overarching lyrical sentiment coupled with the interplay of animation, dance and drama. Laurie Altman attended Mannes, studying with Lester Trimble and William Sydeman. Influences abound with Altman: The Village Vanguard (Bill Evans), the Five Spot (Monk and Trane); the Chicago Symphony, jazz performances at The Blue Note and Soundscape -- a joining of classical and jazz.

What more could an advocate for American music want? This recording combines neglected works by well-known masters (Roy Harris' Symphony No. 11 and Gould's Cowboy Rhapsody) with masterful works by composers whose names may be unfamiliar (Douglas Moore's and Cecil Effinger's Symphonies). World premiere recordings that taken together make up as fresh, finely balanced and excitingly diverse a concert program as one could wish.

José Luis Greco's premiere recording of works for strings and piano is a stunningly beautiful illustration of what can be achieved when one's personal philosophy of life is translated into sound. Indeed, what may not be known about the New York-born, Madrid based composer (whose musical output encompasses works for theatre and ballet, piano, orchestra, voice, and opera) is how much his philosophy, largely influenced by the work of Friedrich Nietzsche, inspires his compositions. Dark Love in Wonderland may be heard as a metaphor for how we experience our world within the totality of its contradictions. Greco is a member of the Royal Spanish American Academy of Science, Arts and Letters and his music has been performed all over the world.

Lansing McLoskey (b.1964) came to the world of composition via a somewhat unorthodox route. The proverbial "Three B's" for him were The Beatles, Bauhaus and Black Flag. His first experiences in composition were as a guitarist and songwriter for punk rock bands in the Bay Area in the early 1980s. It was through these years in the visceral world of punk that he first developed a love for classical music. Hailed as "one of the best composers of (his) generation," McLoskey has had his music performed to critical acclaim across the U.S. and in 12 other countries on five continents. His music has an emotional intensity that appeals to academic and amateur alike, defying traditional stylistic pigeonholes.

The works on this recording span 25 years -- from the Sonata for Cello (1982) to unaccompanied minor (2007). Joel Hoffman comments that, "Like so many composers of my generation, I have worked, over these years, with a number of stylistic dialects -- from a hybrid serialism to a tonal/pan-tonal mix to a folk-inspired modal work to a post-minimalist framework. While I'm arguably the least qualified to describe the threads of continuity...I do observe two persistent qualities...a pervading lyricism and a rhythmic vitality." Hoffman is currently Professor of Composition at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, where he is also Artistic Director of its annual new music festival, MusicX.

All of the pieces on this recording tell a story in one way or another. Some are narrative while others are programmatic or cinematic. Visual imagery, both imaginative and concrete is also part of the fabric of these works. These two elements have been part of several of Raymond Wojcik's works written throughout his creative life and they are brought together here for his second recording with Albany Records. Composer, conductor, and educator Raymond Wojcik received degrees from the Manhattan School of Music and the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver and has served as conductor of the Garden State Philharmonic and the Brunswick Symphony. David Schiff, composer and writer notes: "At a time of technical gimmicks and stylistic uncertainty, Raymond Wojcik writes music from the heart that speaks directly to an audience in a distinctive voice."

Craig Walsh, born in New Jersey in 1971, is a composer on the rise, widely performed across North America and Europe. He is also a composer plugged into new media while simultaneously writing music for traditional acoustic instruments. He is associate professor at the University of Arizona and has received numerous awards and fellowships. The works on this recording represent more than a decade of Walsh's acoustic chamber music. This is bold, compelling music with a distinctive voice that draws the listener in. Walsh has a knack for instrumental combinations that pack a great deal of information into textures that are spare yet timbrally rich. His music is well conceived while pushing the boundaries of performance techniques.

This memorial disc of solos and duos by Andrew Welsh Imbrie (1921-2007) and one of his most distinguished pupils, Hi Kyung Kim (b.1954), boasts performances largely by the musicians who commissioned and premiered them. Two of Imbrie's last pieces, To My Son and Melody for Gayageum, written while he was fighting with his illness are included on this disc. Imbrie first studied with pianist-composer Leo Ornstein between 1930 and 1942, with an eye to becoming a virtuoso pianist as well as a composer. He spent most of World War II in the Army Signal Corps. He studied with Roger Sessions at Princeton and then at the University of California, Berkley. He was appointed professor of music at UC Berkeley in 1949, a post he held until he retired in 1991.

Calvert Johnson has put together a varied and fascinating program of music by Japanese and Chinese composers for harpsichord and organ. Johnson is Professor of Music and College Organist at Agnes Scott College. He is also organist at the First Presbyterian Church in Marietta, Georgia. Johnson earned the master's and doctorate in organ performance at Northwestern University and studied at the Toulouse Conservatoire where he was awarded the Premier Prix. He has performed throughout the U.S., Japan, England, Italy, France, Monaco, Switzerland and Germany. His extensive interests and expertise include books on early Spanish, Italian and English organ music and modern editions of works by women composers.

Drifts and Shadows: American Song for the New Millennium beckons us to an exhilarating journey--via these stimulating songs of integrity, substance and passion. Baritone Elem Eley has worked with each of the six composers. Their compositional styles range from aggressive, hyper-kinetic, and jazzy to compellingly melodious and richly harmonized. Eley enjoys an amazingly varied career, from opera, oratorio and recital to premieres of contemporary vocal works. A native of Georgia, he hold degrees in voice from Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and completed doctoral coursework at Indiana University. He is Professor of Voice at Westminster Choir College of Rider University.

Marthanne Verbit writes, "Long before moving to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2001, I began to think about what role a musician might play in the environmental struggle our planet faces. In choosing to make a recording of five piano works from 1997 to 2007, this may be fiddling while Rome burns. However, it can do no harm to share these very personal musical visions of what is endangered, what is now lost, what needs to be celebrated or preserved, and it may give some pleasure." The noted environmentalist William deBuys, who provides an eloquent essay for the booklet says, "...Each piece tells its own deeply felt, inspired story, each in the language of solo piano, which itself is an endangered form..."

For all the differences among them, Joaquín Turina, Alexandre Tansman, and Carlos Surinach were alike in one regard: each was sympathetic to making his music an affirmation of his cultural heritage. At the same time, their lives spanned a period when modernism was sweeping away the romantic tenets that had upheld 19th-century nationalism. Hence, each came to fashion a distinctive amalgam of nationalist tendencies and newly emergent techniques and modes of thought. Given beautiful performances by the Ames Piano Quartet, the recording ends with a work by Astor Piazzolla that was written as part of the incidental music for a play by Alberto Rodriguez Muñoz.