Catalog

Music from an ancient land meets an instrument of antiquity: the result is a fascinating collection of music by composers either born in Israel or settling there from many points in Europe. Soloist Marina Minkin herself came from the Ukraine in 1981. A student of Mark Kroll, she is active in both Israel and the United States and is a founding member and director of the Ad Libitum Ensemble.

A student of Mario Davidovsky, Jacob Druckman and William Thomas McKinley, Meira Warshauer has devoted much of her creative output to Jewish themes and their universal message. As she writes, “The Torah, Jewish teaching and tradition, is likened to water. It is the source of blessing and goodness, filling all who drink from its well with the knowledge of God. I hope this recording will help to satisfy our thirst and encourage us to continue opening our hearts to the Eternal Spirit in each of us.”

One of our most distinguished composers, Pultizer-Prize recipient John Harbison currently is Institute Professor at MIT and has composed chamber works, concertos, four Symphonies (with a Fifth scheduled for a first performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra) and the Metropolitan Opera commission The Great Gatsby (1999). This release features song cycles based on the works of one of the most prominent Italian 20th century poets, Eugenio Montale (1896-1981). His best known works, Cuttle-Fish Bones (1925-28), The Occasions (1939) and The Storm and Other Things (1956) mark some of the finest achievements in the trend known as Hermeticism. The role of poetry is the absolute realm of the word as prophetic tool, which allows the poet (and by extension humankind) to interpret the world of visible things. Harbison admired the work of Montale for more than a decade before embarking on Motetti di Montale, which was dedicated to the poet on his 85th birthday.

This latest release in this remarkable series by the Illinois State Winds presents two major Symphonies by popular veterans of the field, Jack Stamp and David Maslanka, and introduces the music of the young American composer Kevin Krumenauer. Blue on Red explores the transition from grief and loss to life and celebration. The two colors represent a strong sense of emotion during the opening and closing movements. The renowned David Diamond was both a friend and mentor to Jack Stamp, the Professor of Music and Director of Wind Studies at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Diamond himself had written an Elegy in Memory of Ravel for winds in 1937, and it is fitting that Stamp created this tribute to Diamond within the context of the wind orchestra. Finally we hear one of the major works of the repertoire, David Maslanka's Symphony No. 2, as conductor Steele continues his series devoted to the music of this composer (previous releases are on TROY821, 774/75, 600 and 500)

This series devoted to one of America’s most significant composers brings together 12 vocal works, all but one written in the last two decades. Most of the shorter selections were composed for the Works and Process at the Guggenheim series in New York, and were designed for programs honoring the various poets (Les Murray, John Ashbery, Derek Walcott, Stanley Kunitz and Paul Auster).

To bring together two pieces by Charles Wuorinen with seminal works of Arnold Schoenberg is, in part, to underline a continuity. Wuorinen, exceptionally among his generation, has developed implications of Schoenberg's 12-tone method to his own musical ends with a strong awareness of the works of others of his predecessors, including Stravinsky, Webern, and Milton Babbitt. Wuorinen's two pieces date from the mid 1970s, a period during which Wuorinen was reconciling serialism with tonally-centered music. Schoenberg's work is represented by his pupil Webern's 1912 two-piano arrangement of the Five Pieces for Orchestra and Wuorinen's arrangement of the Variations. In these arrangements, the important details of pitch, rhythm and motivic relationships stand out in relief.

Robert Weirich leads an extremely active career as a pianist, teacher, author and composer, with many awards and articles to his credit, and with more than 30 concerto performances with such conductors as David Zinman and Jose Serebrier. Of Copland’s piano music, he writes, “Aaron Copland had a life-long love affair with the piano…he entrusted the piano with three of his most important, iconically personal works. These compositions hold their own with those of any composer from any period – a pianist can program them alongside Bach, Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms, without fear that the American work suffers in comparison. For sheer originality, compositional craft and profundity of utterance, here is music with a complete mastery of voice – no one but Copland could have written these pieces.”

Born in Cienfuegos, Cuba, Ileana Perez Velázquez earned her degrees from the Higher Institute of Arts, Havana, in 1987. When she moved to the United States in 1993, she was already receiving acclaim as one of the bright lights of Cuban composition, having won several awards. She would later continue her studies at Dartmouth College and Indiana University, where her teachers included John Appleton, Charles Dodge, Claude Baker and Eugene O'Brien. She writes music that, while challenging for both performer and listener alike, is deeply expressive and accessible; her music may be uncompromising in its demands, but it also remains intensely dramatic and poignantly evocative. What's more, her rich harmonic language and rhythmically intricate, multi-layered textures reveal a true debt to her Cuban heritage.

Joshua Rosenblum has composed extensively for both the concert hall and the theater. In addition to the works on this CD, he has written pieces on commission for trumpeter Philip Smith of the New York Philharmonic, flutist Kathleen Nester of the New Jersey Symphony and for French hornist Eric Ruske, one of Albany's premiere artists. For the theater, Rosenblum wrote the score for the acclaimed cult hit Off-Broadway musical, Fermat's Last Tango. He has also conducted the orchestras for such Broadway shows as Miss Saigon, Wonderful Town and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. The works on this disc are a melding of both classical and popular idioms, with many inspired by or commissioned from several of the musicians involved.

Following the success of Orpheus in the Underworld, none other than Rossini dubbed Offenbach "the Mozart of the Champs-Elysees." After another international triumph, La Belle Helene, 1866 saw the premiere of Bluebeard. Despite being based on a grisly legend, Offenbach produced a ribald comedy tinged with the dark, gothic passions later found in The Tales of Hoffmann. Granted, the buffoonery is mixed with some real terror but all comes out well in the end! This recording marks the Ohio Light Opera's first performance of this work since 1987, in a very welcome revival featuring a witty English translation by Richard Traubner and all the high spirits and enthusiasm you expect from this marvelous company.

2008 will mark the 150th anniversary of the internationally renowned Harvard Glee Club, the oldest college chorus in America. Originally founded by students to sing college songs and glees, it was in 1912, under the dynamic leadership of Dr. Archibald T. Davison, that the Club developed a repertoire of distinction and gained its reputation. Under the direction of Jameson Marvin since 1978, the Harvard Glee Club has only enhanced its reputation, continuing to draw upon six centuries of repertoire, including secular and sacred material. They have demonstrated a particular expertise for American choral music, and this retrospective, covering more than 20 years of performances, serves as a perfect example of why the Harvard Glee Club has been lauded throughout its history.

Even for those of a "certain age" (i.e., baby-boomers) who never followed classical music, there is the indelible memory of "Amahl and the Night Visitors," Menotti's warm, wonderful Christmas opera, one of the first commissioned for television's early days. Some dozen years earlier, the composer, only 27, had been commissioned by the same company for the very first opera for radio, "The Old Maid and the Thief." Menotti began writing songs at an early age and studied at the Curtis Institute where he began a lifelong friendship with Samuel Barber, won a Pulitzer Prize for his first full-length opera "The Consul," and oversaw the famed Spoleto Festival, beginning in 1958. Menotti's delicate, tuneful music was almost a modern counterpart to the music of Rossini, full of high spirits, color and equal amounts of drama. This first recording of "The Old Maid and The Thief" in nearly 40 years is a wonderful memorial for the composer who died earlier this year.

The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, called the Shakers, came to the New World in 1774. Ann Lee Standerin, called Mother Ann by her followers, traveled to America with seven disciples to establish the Shaker religion in the New World. The group was so named because of fervent prayer rituals in which they entered into trance-like states Ñ twitching, shaking, whirling, singing and dancing, seeking transcendence from the burdens of sin. A gentle, highly ethical people there were, at the height of the movement in 1850, 6,000 Shakers, a number that began to decline after industrialization took over. Because the Shakers believed the human voice to be the perfect instrument for the expression to God, they were prolific composers. It is said that there are over 10,000 hymns in existence. This unique disc presents both original hymns and modern American works based on the materials. Fittingly, the first of these is one that is beloved by many: Aaron Copland's setting of Simple Gifts.

Born in Breslau (now Wroclaw), Silesia, Frank Lewin emmigrated to the United States in 1940. His easily recognizable lean and spare instrumental style has been showcased on several Albany releases in recent years; the 2-CD set of film music (TROY866/67) gave a good indication of his work for various ensembles. This is the first release of his purely orchestral work. The Concerto on Silesian Themes is born of material that is obviously close to the composer's heart and mind. The Concerto Armonico has an interesting history: originally composed for the harmonica of the late John Sebastian, the work was never performed. Then it was revised for the present viola soloist, Brett Deubner. The final work was written for the tenth anniversary of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra in 1960.

Jean Berger was a renowned German-American conductor and composer. Beyond composing, he was active as a coach, accompanist and musicologist. His choral works have been widely performed throughout America and Europe. Despite having composed 109 songs for solo voice, in diverse languages, from 1937 to 1992, it is only in recent years that they have been discovered and sung -- a performing gap that is closed by this recording. With much to offer the novice and professional singer, the music is vocally accessible and the poetry offers a wealth of moods and expressions for both the discerning performer and listener.

The very nature of this disc is appealingly old-fashioned: a collection of works that reveal the composers' innermost feelings about distinctly American places. For example, Lee McQuillan's Sweet Home Suite is inspired by his hometown, Middletown, Connecticut and its people and geography. A more wistful approach is taken by Christopher Montgomery in the second half of Two Cities: the idea that unless New Orleans is relocated to higher ground, then the city might be completely submerged in the future -- akin to the ancient legend of Atlantis. And the veteran Chicago composer, Helmuth Fuchs, pays homage to the Second City in his Chicago Fantasie Overture.

Shulamit Ran, probably the most significant Israeli composer since her teacher Paul Ben-Haim to receive wide, international recognition, came to this country in her teens and continued her studies with Norman Dello-Joio. In 1973 she joined the faculty of the University of Chicago. From 1990-1997 she was composer-in-residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. At this time she won the Pulitzer Prize for her Symphony (1990). Her music is marked by a strong sense of lyricism underpinned by dramatic, colorful contrasts and powerful orchestration. "Legends" was written in celebration of the twin centennials of the University of Chicago and the Chicago Symphony, and Albany Records is proud to present this live performance by this great orchestra. The Violin Concerto, as she puts it, "explores certain facets of what, for me, is the violin's complex personality, or 'soul'." It was written for the performer on this disc, Israeli violinist Ittai Shapira.

Recognized as a "major talent" by the Chicago Tribune, Larry Bell has been awarded the Rome Prize, fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, and the Charles Ives Award. A student of Vincent Persichetti and Roger Sessions, his music has been widely performed in the United States and abroad, and as a pianist he has championed the works of American composers.

The Counterpoint Chorale and the Vermont Symphony Brass Quintet gave their first holiday concert in 2003 and, after countless requests, here is their first CD. It begins with a 50th anniversary performance of the late Daniel Pinkham's marvelous Christmas Cantata and continues through a bright and joyful collection of traditional tunes and discoveries. Christmas in Vermont is a feast for your ears and a gift for your heart.

Eric Ewazen writes, "In the Spring of 2006, I was delighted to find out that the extraordinary chamber ensemble, Ibis Camerata, was interested in recording a CD of my music (from the mid-80's through the mid-90's)...they chose works of mine which showcase the melodic, rhythmic and harmonic language I was focusing on at that time...The Ensemble has brought my music to life beautifully and I am very grateful to them for introducing this collection of pieces to you."

Brian Fennelly was a pupil of Mel Powell, Donald Martino, Gunther Schuller and George Perle. The music on this disc grows out of strong European and American traditions: it echoes the highly charged chamber music of early 20th century Austria; it recalls the visceral excitement and structural integrity of Sessions and Carter as well as the rhythms and harmonic richness of sophisticated jazz and swing. It is music for listeners with open minds and receptive ears.

An advocate of contemporary music, the highly-acclaimed Ms. Risinger has played throughout the United States and abroad, often presenting world premieres of works written for and dedicated to her. She is currently Principal Flute in the Illinois Symphony. She is also a member of the Sonneries Wind Quintet and has performed with the Ohio Light Opera and the Washington Bach Sinfonia.

The saxophone has been an active participant in new developments in classical, jazz and popular music, especially in the past half-century. Equally at home in Classical music and jazz, Noah Getz explores the mixture of these two genres from the classical perspective. Crosscurrents is a diverse exploration of contemporary classical repertoire containing a variety of jazz elements.

The repertoire alone - featuring the first commercial recording of the Piston Variations and the elegant Evett Concerto - is enticing enough. But there's much more. Luis Leguia, the veteran cellist of the Boston Symphony (since 1963) is also an inventor and here he performs on his unique Luis & Clark Carbon Fiber Cello, an instrument that has received exceptional praise from critics and musicians.

The music of Milos Raickovich is political, or, more precisely, it carries an antiwar message. He writes moving music, at times purposely naive, at times horrifying. The pieces range from the meditative and minimalist (Little Peaceful Music) to spiritual (Parastos--an Eastern Orthodox Requiem); from dramatic (B-A-G-D-A-D) to documentary (United States, Stop the War!); from ritualistic (Litany of Iraq) to symbolic (Alarm). The CD is titled after a piece, B-A-G-D-A-D, Music on a six-note theme. The composer explains, "This work is a musical dedication to the ancient city, Baghdad. The name of this capital (spelled the European way, without the letter H) is used as a musical theme made of six notes: B-flat, A, G, D, A, D." Milos Raickovich has lived and worked in Belgrade, Paris, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Hiroshima and New York. He studied composition with Olivier Messiaen and David Del Tredici, and has taught at several universities in the U.S. and Japan. The Los Angeles Times critic Mark Swed describes Raickovich's music as "a unique postmodern response to both minimalism and multiculturalism."

As America's premiere writer of classical vocal works states, "...I embarked on the madness of a composer's career by writing songs...My singular reputation, such as it is, has always centered around song..." The present work is based on texts by 24 composers that "seem endemic to this autumnal moment, as I look back to a youth 'which foresaw in the light of a summer day the end of all life.'"

Chris Gekker is Professor of Trumpet at the University of Maryland. For 18 years he was a member of the American Brass Quintet, as well as being Principal Trumpet of the Orchestra of St. Luke's and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. As a soloist, he has specialized in new American music for his instrument. This release is a companion to his earlier Albany disc, Winter (TROY670).

Eric Moe has been described by the New York Times as a composer of "music of winning exuberance," and has received numerous grants and awards. His works are edgy but with an almost pop-like appeal. This collection of recent vocal works on very diverse texts joins his previous two releases of original works on TROY506 and TROY597.

Born in Buenos Aires, Jorge Liderman has studied under Mark Kopitman, Ralph Shapey and Shulamit Ran. He writes: "This album is a collection of solos, duos and trios I wrote during the last 20 years. They are all inspired by, based on, quote, or make reference to pre-existing musical sources...in this disc the sources range from tango to William Byrd, and from Guillaume de Machault to Andean folklore."

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

How irresistible: a brand-new opera about the death of a fictional composer and his incomplete opera, his mysterious widow and her encounter with a musician who wants to finish it. Is murder involved? And it's suggested by a real life encounter between Leonard Bernstein and Alban Berg's widow! All of this awaits you in Frau Margot by America's most renowned opera composer, Thomas Pasatieri.

This is the first major release devoted to the African-American composer Ulysses Kay. Encouraged by William Grant Still, he would study under Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson at Eastman, and his works are distinctively American in spirit and strength. Of special interest is his music to The Quiet One, one of the first major film scores by a Black composer.