Catalog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The ever-enterprising Illinois State University Wind Symphony offers world premiere recordings of three works, the oldest of which (David Maslanka's Symphony No. 3) being written in 1991. David Gillingham's Concerto for Euphonium and Band (Summer of 2008) features Jason Ham, who is a member of the West Point Band and on the faculty at Interlochen Summer Arts Camp and Montclair State University.

The only opera composed by Edward Joseph Collins, Daughter of the South, is set on a plantation on the Potomac River, near Leesburg, Virginia. The composer also wrote the libretto, the dramatic action commencing on the day the Civil War began and ending when peace was declared. Pondering what would be an appropriate opera for an American composer, Collins drew on his life-long interest in the Civil War and created an opera using the love story of a Southern beauty with a Northern boy as the basis of the libretto. The music shares many identifiable qualities with Collins’ other compositions for large ensembles, yet also makes more direct use of music styles from the popular culture of the 1920s and 30s, especially jazz and blues.

Clarinet trio CDs aren't the most mainstream kind of CDs around. However there are always clarinetists like the distinguished artists from Chicago performing on this recording who are always searching for fun, interesting new music to perform. The music was selected with these criteria in mind and the hope is the listeners will find the "fun" in this music -- four works of which were written specifically for this ensemble.

Thomas Sleeper enjoys a highly prolific career as both composer and conductor. An active guest conductor in the U.S. and abroad, Sleeper has appeared with more than 30 orchestras on four continents. His compositional oeuvre to date includes two symphonies, two orchestral song cycles, eight concerti, six operas, numerous chamber and solo works and music for film. Sleeper is the Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music.

Born in New York, Peter Ivan Edwards studied at Northwestern University and at the University of California, San Diego. His work has been performed throughout the world by numerous ensembles and at major international festivals. He is assistant professor at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore where he teaches composition and theory. His music is influenced by two strands of music thinking -- the American experimentalists and the European avant-garde. Edwards takes many different things from these traditions and creates an original music that builds off their discoveries.

The Bowling Green Philharmonia offers another fascinating mix of new music in this sixth volume of the series. Ranging from the young Avner Dorman's Variations Without a Theme for Large Orchestra to the even younger Raymond Lustig's Unstuck to 103-year-old Elliott Carter's Pastoral for English Horn and Strings with works by Marilyn Shrude and Steven Stucky occupying the generations in-between, the recording gives the listener an opportunity to hear fine music in excellent performances.

Although the six pieces that make up this program were not composed with this purpose in mind, each work explores different ways to combine the sounds of flute and percussion. Two of humanity's oldest instruments, they remain favorites of contemporary composers. Stylistically, the pieces on this recording vary greatly, but they also complement each other by showing manifold possibilities that flute and percussion duos offer.

Morris Rosenzweig was born October 1, 1952 in New Orleans, where he grew up among the tailors, merchants, and strong-willed women of an extended family that has lived in southern Louisiana since the mid 1890s. His works have been widely presented throughout the United States, as well as in Europe, Japan, Argentina, Mexico and Israel. His recorded compositions are available on Albany Records Centaur, and New World/CRI. Mr. Rosenzweig has received honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, commissions from the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the Argosy Foundation, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, and support from the Alice M. Ditson Fund. Presently Professor of Music at the University of Utah, he has formerly held positions at Queens College and New York University. He was educated at the Eastman School of Music, the University of Pennsylvania, and Columbia University.

Extreme Measures is the first project in clarinetist Jean Kopperud's Rated X series. It is seven clarinet and piano works written for Kopperud asking composers to dare to stretch the medium. The Winnipeg Free Press reviewed a past project that Kopperud toured, which might best describe Rated X. "You can expect to have your head bent a little. You will stay awake. You will be fascinated and infuriated . . . and exhilarated by what you have heard." Rated X ("Extreme Measures") premiered in the fall of 2008 on the West Coast and was recorded in the spring of 2009. A graduate of Juilliard and former student of Nadia Boulanger, Kopperud has toured the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan, China, the Caribbean and Australia as a concert soloist and chamber musician. She performs with the New York New Music Ensemble and is a professor of music at the University of Buffalo.

The six compositions on this recording by the Armenian-American Hayg Boyadjian, cover a six-year period of his compositional output. Each was written for and is dedicated to specific musicians, although not all of them figure as performers on this recording. The musical language reflects Boyadjian's diverse background. Born in Paris of Armenian parents, he grew up in Buenos Aires and then relocated to the United States. He has drawn musical inspiration and materials from all these different cultures. Inspired by Boyadjian's interest in astronomy, the last work on the recording (Pleiades) was written for James Pellerite, who has dedicated himself to the native American flute.

Born in Chicago, Michael White attended the Chicago Music College and at the Juilliard School where he worked with Peter Mennin and Vincent Persichetti. He was composer-in-residence for the public schools of Seattle and Amarillo, where he began composing operas. He subsequently taught at Oberlin and the Philadelphia Musical Academy and is now at Juilliard. Since 2007 White has composed entirely for solo piano and the results are heard on this recording. In pianist Mirian Conti, White has an unexcelled champion for his music.

The Young Debussy comprises the songs composed by Claude Debussy before his 30th birthday that he felt were good enough to publish. The vocal writing varies, but in most of them there is the emphasis on the middle and low range characteristic of much French vocal music. Darren Chase sings all of the songs in the composer's original keys. Recordings of Debussy's songs now go back more than 100 years but the large majority feature sopranos or mezzos with the rest sung by lyric baritones. This is the first recording since 1975 where this repertoire is sung by a tenor and as such offers an enlightening experience of this music.

Modern brass chamber music is dominated by quintets and the relative scarcity of trio performances is belied by the number of outstanding compositions for that ensemble, some of which are presented on this recording. Worth noting is the daunting challenge inherent in the ensemble itself Ñ the transparency of the three voices demands that even secondary lines project with identity and color. When performed on a high level, as on this disc, there is a deeply gratifying intensity to the experience, shared by the listener and the performers.

Radical, traditional, original, archetypal, Cindy Cox derives her "post-tonal" musical language from acoustics, innovations in technology, harmonic resonance, and poetic allusion. Naturally unfolding through linked strands of association, timbral fluctuation, and cyclic temporal processes, her compositions synthesize old and new musical designs. This is the second disc of Cox's chamber music to appear on Albany Records. Cindy Cox is the Evelyn and Jerry Chambers Chair Professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

In the notes to this recording John Salmon observes that he has always been a classical and jazz pianist and that his professional life has mirrored his youthful inclinations with recitals of music from the classical canon around the globe and appearances with the jazz-faculty combo at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. This is the first recording of his own piano compositions, which are unmistakably in the jazz idiom, probably even more precisely categorized as "third stream," the style that combines jazz and classical languages. The composer/pianist says, "Salmon Is a Jumpin' would have been grammatically incorrect if referring to the fish. But as an autobiographical statement it is correct, especially when I get in a B-flat blues swinging mood."

A is for Azimuth and Arnica, for found objects and found texts, is a collection of six activities, written for San Francisco-based percussionist Chris Froh, with additional versions by Yarn/Wire members Ian Antonio and Russell Greenberg, and for Geneva Prize winner Aiyun Huang. The title of the second work, Mediations, Tenors, a duo for marimba with metal and vibraphone with wood, refers to the psalm-tone recitation formula of medieval chant. The work of Ben Carson, Associate Professor of Music at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has been recognized at numerous and international festivals of new chamber music, experimental music, and improvisation.

Jorge Martín's dramatic two-act opera, based on the writings of Cuban dissident and poet Reinaldo Arenas is giving its world premiere recording. In creating an opera from the memoir of Reinaldo Arenas, composer Jorge Martín with the help of Dolores Koch, took every step to insure accuracy, calling upon Cuban émigrés for advice, particularly for the prison and interrogation scenes. Before Night Falls transcends a specific time and place, however, capturing universal themes and Martín has woven these themes into a vibrant music drama.

The Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 40 by Johannes Brahms reigns as one of the supreme works of chamber music that includes the French horn, and it is often thought of as the model for all of the succeeding works composed for this trio. The instrumentation is certainly unique, as there were no precedents of note in the major chamber music oeuvre. Paired with the Brahms on this recording are two rarely performed and previously unrecorded horn trios from the beginning of the last century. All three performers are internationally acclaimed and give exceptional performances of this repertoire.

This second recording of chamber music by Armand Qualliotine on Albany Records features music for piano, vibraphone and marimba. Qualliotine (b.1954) earned his degrees from the Hart College of Music, SUNY-Stony Brook and Brandeis University. His post-doctoral work included studies with Pierre Boulez and Milton Babbitt. He is now a professor of composition at Berklee College of Music. He has received commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation, Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, and the Paul Jacobs Commission for orchestral composition from the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra.

With the exception of the Six Valses Caractéristiques, these are the first recordings of these compositions by Edward Joseph Collins. Born in Illinois, Collins studied piano with Ganz in Chicago and composition with Bruch and Humperdinck in Europe. Collins was hired in 1914 as an assistant conductor for the Bayreuth Festival, a brief engagement ended by WWI. After the war, his music attracted the attention of Frederick Stock, who conducted many of his orchestral compositions with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

As the world is turning from the 19th to the 20th century, Hudson, New York, on the Hudson River, in the Hudson Valley, was a little town with a big red light district centered on Diamond Street. Harold Farberman has written a comic opera (libretto by Andrew Joffe) that involves politicians, a heroine forced to work in the red light district and a hero, who rescues her. Harold Farberman is a distinguished composer, conductor and pedagogue. He has conducted many of the world's leading orchestras and his accomplishments as a recording artist have been widely recognized. A prolific composer, he counts orchestral works, chamber music, concertos, ballet music, film scores, song cycles and operas among his compositions. He is founder and director of the Conductors Institute.

This compact disc presents six world premiere recordings of works commissioned by Duo XXI. Each of these pieces introduces an innovative compositional approach to the relatively unexplored genre of the string duo. Both members of Duo XXI -- Anna Cromwell, violin and Mira Frisch, cello -- are passionate string professors who reach a diverse audience through concerts, conference presentations and outreach workshops. Ms. Cromwell is on the faculty at Eastern Illinois University while Ms. Frisch teaches cello at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.