Catalog

MAD DANCES? Mad indeed! This collection of American music for saxophone and piano is a representation of the wonderfully "mad" and spectacular contemporary saxophone repertoire. There is a uniquely mad-like quality to all of these works: this madness is presented in many different ways, using the definition of "mad" quite loosely. Libby Larsen's Holy Roller is full of madness, invoking the intensity of revival meetings and sermons of "holy roller" type preachers. Skookum Suite, by Kevin Isaacs is inspired by the Sasquatch, or "Skookum," who becomes "mad, sad and glad" as he is discovered by humans, escapes, and finds true love. William Albright actually provided us with our album title in the second and fourth movements of his brilliant Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano, while David Diamond's sonata allows us a brief respite from madness with his eloquently composed and truly American work. The collection ends with an arrangement of David Del Tredici's Acrostic Song from Final Alice...well, what could be madder than the Mad Hatter? All this given brilliant performances by the esteemed saxophone player, Dan Goble, and pianist Russell Hirshfield.

Composer David Del Tredici credits pianist Marc Peloquin with getting him back to writing music for piano after a 20 year hiatus. The two met at the turn of the century and Del Tredici was so impressed with Peloquin's curiosity, performance skills and joy in his music, that he was persuaded to start again. This is the second in what will be four volumes of Del Tredici's works for piano. The music on this recording includes works written in 1958 and 1984 as well as ones written between 2003 and 2015. Critically acclaimed by the press, Marc Peloquin has appeared in a wide rnge of venues, including the Kennedy Center, the Guggenheim Museum, the American Academy in Rome and Weill Recital Hall, among many others. Known for his advocacy of composer of our time, Peloquin has recorded music by Otto Luening, Chester Biscardi, Samuel Barber, and Dennis Tobenski. He studied at Boston University, the New England Conservatory, and the Manhattan School of music. He is on the faculty of the New School University and artistic director at the Bloomingdale School of Music.

With the release of this 3-CD set, Marc Peloquin has now recorded the complete piano music of David Del Tredici. The first volume was released on Naxos. The collaboration and friendship between Peloquin and Del Tredici goes back two decades and has proven fruitful for both composer and performer. David Del Tredici, known as the founder of Neo-Romanticism, is one of America's most distinguished and honored composers. Del Tredici has been on the faculties of Harvard and Boston University and was Distinguished Professor of Music at The City College of New York for more than 25 years. Marc Peloquin, known for his advocacy of new music, has recordings on CRI, Naxos, Urtext, and Albany Records. He is on the faculty at the Bloomingdale School of Music and formerly taught at the New School University. He is a graduate of Manhattan School of Music and Boston University.

Donald Martino began music lessons at the age of nine; learning to play the clarinet, saxophone, and oboe. He started composing at 15. He attended Syracuse and Princeton Universities. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received two Fulbright scholarships, three Guggenheim fellowships and grants from the NEA. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for Notturno and in 1985 the Kennedy Center Friedheim Competition for his String Quartet. He has taught at the Third Street Music School Settlement in New York, Princeton University, Yale University, the Yale Summer School of Music and Art, Tanglewood, the New England Conservatory of Music, where he was chairman of the composition department from 1969-79, Brandeis University, where he was Irving Fine Professor of Music, and Harvard University, where he is currently Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music Emeritus. Prize-winning pianist David Holzman has performed the 20th century's most challenging masterpieces throughout the United States and abroad. He has premiered works by more than 100 composers from around the world. He studied with Paul Jacobs and Nadia Reisenberg. He began his solo career in the 1980s and has earned consistent praise for his virtuoso performances. Andrew Porter, writing in The New Yorker has described him as a "master pianist." This disc contains exciting performances of fine American piano music.

The internationally acclaimed flutist Marya Martin, assisted by musicians from the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival, offer a program of Eric Ewazen's music for flute. The Flute Sonata and the Bridgehampton Suite were both written specifically for Ms. Martin, a long-time friend of the composer's; the SeaSkye Songs were inspired by the poetry of Karen Wagner, written as a tribute to a friend who had committed suicide; and Mosaics was composed for another flutist friend. Composer Ewazen says that he was completely influenced by Martin's lovely golden tone and her spectacular technical agility. This compact disc of world premiere recordings offers beautiful performances of Eric Ewazen's music for flute, and adds immensely to the chamber music repertoire.

This recording presents four works composer Mathew Fuerst has written for violinist Jasper Wood and pianist David Riley, along with a solo piano piece. The compositions span a time period of 12 years and show Fuerst's development as a composer. Fuerst, a prize-winner at the 2nd Annual Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition, is a graduate of Eastman and Juilliard, where he worked with Robert Beaser and John Corigliano. His music has been performed in numerous venues around the U.S. as well as in Paris, Budapest, Scotland and Hong Kong. He is on the faculty at Hillsdale College. Violinist Jasper Wood has performed with many of North America's finest orchestras as well as pursuing an active career as a recitalist and chamber musician. He is affiliated with the University of British Columbia where he teaches violin and chamber music. Pianist David Riley, on the faculty at the University of Oregon, has received rave reviews throughout the U.S. and Canada, performing as a recitalist at major venues.

Clarinetist David Odom has a thriving career as a soloist, chamber artist, orchestral musician, and educator. He has performed on four continents including in Brazil at the Festival Internacional de Música de Campina Grande and the ICA ClarinetFest in Spain. His performances have been featured on radio and television. He is principal clarinet of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra and the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and is on the faculty at Auburn University. His collaborator, pianist Jeremy Samolesky, is also on the faculty at Auburn and has performed throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. Odom notes that Max Reger was inspired to write for clarinet after hearing a performance in early 1900 of Brahms' F Minor Sonata given by clarinetist Johann Kürmeyer and his former teacher Adalbert Lindner. He promptly composed the two sonatas in the spring of that year and gave a private performance of both with Kürmeyer. The recording concludes with two short works and these, along with the sonatas, comprise Reger's complete oeuvre for clarinet and piano.

The bass trombone came into prominence as a solo instrument in the mid to late 20th century, and is essentially a larger version of the tenor trombone. Until recently, it has been relegated mostly to supporting orchestral roles, doubling the bass or choral lines with an occasional turn in the spotlight. Higher quality instruments and new types of valves led to an environment for better players, and in turn, have inspired more composers to write for the bass trombone as a true solo voice. The trombone slide is a device found on no other instrument. The slide offers both a hindrance and an advantage; awkward and slippery, it can be difficult to maneuver. However, because of the fluid characteristics of the slide, a trombonist can at a moment's notice, imitate any number of machines and wild animals, or sing the most beautiful songs with vocal expression. Berlioz expressed the characteristics of the trombone best in his treatise on orchestration: "In my opinion, the trombone is the true head of the family of wind instruments, which I have named the "epic" one. It possesses nobility and grandeur to the highest degree; it has all the serious and powerful tones of sublime musical poetry, from religious, calm and imposing accents, to savage orgiastic outbursts. Directed by the will of the master, the trombones can chant like a choir of priests, threaten, utter gloomy sighs, a mournful lament, or a bright hymn of glory; they can break forth into awe inspiring cries and awaken the dead or doom the living with their fearful voices."

Duo XXI (Anna Cromwell, violin and Mira Frisch, cello) is committed to developing the musical culture of the 21st century through commissioning, performing, and recording new music. Both members are passionate string professors who reach a diverse audience through concerts, conference presentations, and outreach workshops. The duo's mission is to unite today's students, performers, and composers to enliven music and to cultivate the intimate and expressive string do as a genre for our time. In their second recording for Albany Records, they give committed performances of seven of these commissioned works by composers Jonathon Kirk, John Allemeier, Brian Arreola, Ferdinando De Sena, Stephen Anderson, Paul Johnston, and David Maki.

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.

Bennett Lerner was born in Boston in 1944 and currently lives in Chiang Mai, Thailand. He is a well-known performer of contemporary music and has premiered many pieces by major composers. In 1985, he performed the Copland Piano Concerto with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic in honor of the composer's 85th birthday. The program was broadcast nationally on Live From Lincoln Center. Lerner was Copland's chosen soloist. His primary teachers were Claudio Arrau and Robert Helps, among others. Lerner received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from City University of New York in October, 2001, in piano performance and music history. Mr. Lerner writes: "Throughout my career I have had many close friends who were composers. Many of them wrote pieces for me, some of which I played in their world premiere performances, some of which I played many times, some of which I played only once, and some of which I played for the first time during the world tour of MUSIC BY MY FRIENDS in September-November, 2003. This recording is made up in large part of those pieces. In addition, it includes other works by my composer-friends." Comments from composers include Roger Zahab: "Your recordings are truly wonderful! I feel that you have done a magnificent thing for all of us. I wouldn't change a thing."; Tison Street: "The performances are absolutely stellar...Your performance of my Poem is just the best!..."; Donald Richie: "Your recording of your friends' music is your finest yet, and the relaxed beauty you bring to my little pieces is wonderful...."

Daniel Palkowski is a composer, pianist/synthesist, educator, audio engineer and creative designer. He studied at the Manhattan School of Music and Columbia. He has taught at both of those schools as well as at the Tisch School of the Arts and Music at New York University. He works for Ernst & Young as a creative designer, specializing in audio and video production. His music has been commissioned by organizations such as the Westchester Philharmonic, Music from China, and MacMillan Digital. The compositions on this recording were created in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Pianist ShiLing Shih has performed throughout the U.S. and in Taiwan and has collaborated with husband Daniel Palkowski on many works and performances. Recognized as the world's premier pipa virtuoso, Wu Man is a soloist, educator, and composer who has given her instrument a new role in both traditional and contemporary music. Macedonian pianist Elena Atanasovska has performed in numerous concerts in Macedonia as well as festivals in Bosnia, Portugal, Spain, Serbia, and Kosova among others.

New remastering and annotation distinguish this reissue of a 1992 release on CRI with the addition of historic private recordings made by Gunnar Johansen of Collins' music. This adds to the existing seven volumes previously released by Albany Records of this Chicago composer's music.

This fascinating program of music for flute and piano juxtaposes composers from the US and Russia whose compositions were all written during the sixties at the height of the Cold War. Composers in the US were subject to very different influences and pressures than their colleagues in the Soviet Union and the music reflects these influences as well as the turbulent decade of the 1960s. Beautifully performed by flutist Brian Luce and his pianist Rex Woods, the recording is a super audio compact disc.

This recording reflects aspects of a mutual intersection and continual development between pianist David Holzman and composer James Ricci, touching upon both musical and personal connections over the course of a lifetime. They shared similar musical backgrounds and experiences, but didn't know each other personally until 2015 and began a formal collaboration. Holzman has premiered the majority of Ricci's works on this disc. James Ricci studied at the Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory and Brandeis University. His music has been performed by soloists and chamber ensembles, including Kenneth Radnofsky, the Lydian String Quartet, Collage New Music, and Solar Winds, among many others. David Holzman has been hailed as a "master pianist" and is the recipient of numerous honors and awards. He is an advocate for music of the 20th and 21st centuries and is especially noted for his performances of the music of Stefan Wolpe. A graduate of Mannes College of Music and Queens College, he is on the faculty at C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University.

Pianist Nancy Elton has received critical acclaim for her performances as a solo recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician throughout the Southeast and other parts of the United States. A highly sought teacher in the Atlanta area, she has served on the piano faculties of Georgia State University, the University of West Georgia, and the University of Georgia. She received her Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the University of Texas at Austin, having previously studied at the University of South Carolina. Her numerous awards include the Georgia Teacher of the Year presented by the Georgia Music Teachers Association in 2005. For her debut recording she has chosen Chopin's Piano Sonata No. 3; selected Debussy preludes and two other works by Debussy.

Nancy Hill Elton has received critical acclaim for her performances as a solo piano recitalist, concerto soloist, and chamber musician. Elton maintains an active performing and teaching schedule and has served on the piano faculties of Georgia State University, the University of Georgia, and the University of West Georgia. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin in both piano and vocal performance, she also received degrees at the University of South Carolina. For this, her second recording for Albany Records, Ms. Elton has chosen a program of compositions by Chopin and Rachmaninoff, including the revised version of Rachmaninoff's Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 36 with some brief interspersions of the original version in the second and third movements.

Jorge Elias Variego is a clarinetist and composer born in Rosario, Argentina, in 1975. He holds a Bachelors Degree from Universidad Nacional de Rosario and a Masters Degree from Carnegie Mellon University, where he studied with Michael Rusinek and Leonardo Balada. He has performed as soloist with the most renowned orchestras in Argentina and his works have been performed throughout the world. This recording features Variego performing all the clarinet parts in works written for a variety of clarinet configurations and ensembles.

Tim Page, the chief music critic for The Washington Post and the Pulitzer Prize Winner for Distinguished Criticism in 1997, writes: "This collection of new and historic recordings pays tribute to a great man, one who never let his hard-won artistic distinction eclipse his personal duties as a fellow human being. After all these years, it is a wonderful thing to be able to spend more time in the company of Charles Jones. Jones adapted his Five Melodies for Violin and Piano from an earlier set of Five Melodies for Orchestra (1945), and it is a mark of the composer's sure sense of economy that he was able to make such a seamless reduction, without a wasted or extraneous note. One of the delights of this recording is the opportunity to hear Jones' Piano Sonata No. 2 played by William Masselos. Indeed, composer and pianist seem to have been made for each other. And then we have the Symphony No. 3, composed in 1962, and recorded by the brilliant young conductor, Michael Adelson (who has shown a welcome devotion to Jones' music) in 1993. Here - finally! - we have the opportunity to hear one of Jones' major orchestral works on record."

Eric Moe writes: "The waltz traffics in weightlessness. By adding an extra step to the one-two/left-right of pedestrian movement, it forces the waltzer and listener off the ground and into the air (left-right-UP). Some of these waltzes tackle gravity head on (Roger Zahab's Levitation of pianos during a waltz), others are more insinuatingly buoyant, but all share this attribute. These new waltzes are not exclusively American - there are contributions from Poland (Zygmunt Krauze's Music Box Waltz) and Nigeria (Akin Euba's Study in African Jazz 3) - but they are indebted to vernacular American rhythms which add even more bounce. Their distinguished European ancestry is recognizable, but these waltzes are very much of our time - only lighter. I have revisited Robert Helps' and Robert Moran's Waltz Project of the mid-1970s - half of the 22 waltzes on this CD are from the collection published by C.F. Peters. They include works that have become standards of the repertoire, such as Milton Babbitt's Minute Waltz and Philip Glass' Modern Love Waltz, as well as other gems. The remaining 11 waltzes are new, ten composed especially for this recording, with Ricky Ian Gordon's Waltz a happy discovery. The variety is enormous. Some have a direct connection with jazz: Anthony Cornicello's PostModern Waltz deconstructs a famous McCoy Tyner solo; my own Pulaski Skyway Waltz begins with a quotation from Mal Waldron's Firewaltz, Akin Euba's "African Jazz" study draws from the musical wells of Africa and Vienna, while Andrew Imbrie infuses a one-to-the-bar waltz with the headlong energy of bebop. Lee Hyla's One Moe Time has an improvisational feel, eventually cutting loose ecstatically before returning to its senses. Other waltzes comment trenchantly on the genre itself, like Ron Caltabiano's Character Sketch: About a Waltz. Virgil Thomson's birthday card to Mrs. Efram Zimbalist subverts the waltz rhythm with a thumping duple cross-rhythm in the process of quoting "Happy Birthday." Charles Wuorinen's Self-Similar Waltz operates on a deeper level of wit, reflecting its muscular self in myriad ways; the listening experience is like walking through a set of fun-house mirrors."

This recording is a collection that includes eight world premieres and is the most comprehensive and wide-ranging album of Chinese solo string works to date. Encompassing music by two generations of contemporary Chinese composers, celebrated and emerging, the featured works are inspired by global literature, the tonal Mandarin and Cantonese languages, Chinese folk culture, and the soundscape of Hong Kong. Praised for his "deeply expressive, finely nuanced playing" (The Strad), Honolulu-born violinist Patrick Yim has performed on stages around the world. His recordings appear on the Naxos, Navona, Ravello, and Acis labels. A strong advocate of contemporary music, Yim has commissioned more than 40 works to date. He is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Music and Stony Brook University. He is currently Assistant Professor of Violin in the Department of Music and a Faculty Fellow at the Liu Institute for Asia and Asian Studies at the University of Notre Dame.

In his tragically short career (he died at age 18), Aliosha Nikolaev (1959-1977) wrote not only piano music but two Romances based on texts of Pushkin, a quintet for two violins, one viola, and two cellos, a trio for two flutes and cello, and in 1984 a suite for oboe and piano. Many of Aliosha Nikolaev's compositions present to a large extent, vivid and colorful interpretations of Russian folk fairy tales, of which The Tin Kingdom is an example. The Cat's Hut is based on a play written for the children by Russian poet Samuel Marshak. Boris Tishchenko was born in Leningrad in 1939 and is a graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory. His list of credit sis in keeping with his status of one of the geatest composers of our time. He is a recipient of hte title People's Artist of Russia and of the Russian Federation's prestgious Glinka Award. He is a master of the large forms, having written one opera, one operetta, three ballets.

Violins of Hope is an artistic and educational project composed of instruments that were owned by Jewish musicians before and during the Holocaust. Violins in the collection were played in the concentration camps and ghettos, providing a source of comfort for some and a means of survival for others. Above all, the instruments represented strength and optimism for the future during mankind's darkest hour. The project was founded by Amnon and Avshalom Weinstein, Israeli luthiers who collect and refurbish the instruments and bring them to communities around the world. Violinist Niv Ashkenazi was invited to join other musicians performing on instruments from this collection and now holds one of the instruments on a long-term loan. This violin, made between 1900-1929 in Eastern Europe or Germany, was used by Ashkenazi for this recording. Ashkenazi has chosen Jewish repertoire from throughout the lifetime of the violin. Like the instruments in the Violins of Hope collection, most of these composers were affected by the Holocaust. Virtuoso violinist Niv Ashkenazi has captivated audiences with his heartfelt musicianship and emotional performances. An accomplished soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician, he has performed throughout the United States, Europe, and the Middle East. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School. Pianist Matthew Graybil has performed throughout the United States and Canada since making his orchestral debut at age 14. The recipient of numerous awards and prizes, he is a graduate of The Juilliard School.

By the latter part of the forties, Norman Dello Joio was considered one of America's leading composers, and by the fifties he had gained international recognition. In 1948 and again in 1962 he won the New York Music Critic's Circle Award and in 1957 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his Meditations on Ecclesiastes for string orchestra. The same year he also won an Emmy Award for his score to the television special Scenes from the Louvre. Debra Torok first spoke with Norman Dello Joio about this recording project in the beginning of May, 1997. Their initial meeting had been anticipated by the artist who, through research and performance, saw a need to make the public aware of these wonderful piano pieces. They began working together on interpretation and to correct the scores. This two volume set of the solo piano music is the first recording of the complete piano works of Dello Joio; a composer whose life achievements and compositions have enriched the landscape of American music. (Volume One is TROY344.)

The distinguished professional musical career of Norman Dello Joio began for him at age fourteen when he became a church organist and choir director of the Star of the Sea Church on City Island, New York. A descendant of Italian church organists, his father was an organist, pianist, singer and vocal coach. Dello Joio recalls that his father was working with singers from the Metropolitan Opera who used to arrive in their Rolls Royces, and that his childhood was surrounded with music and musicians at home. In 1939, he was accepted as a scholarship student at Juilliard where he studied with Bernard Wagenaar. In 1941, he studied at Tanglewood and Yale with Paul Hindemith who told him "your music is lyrical by nature; don't ever forget that." Dello Joio has won the New York Music Critics' Circle Award in 1948 and again in 1962. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1957 for Meditations on Ecclesiastes for string orchestra and an Emmy for his music to the television special, Scenes from the Louvre. He taught at Sarah Lawrence College, the Mannes College of Music, and was Professor of Music and Dean of the Fine and Applied Arts School of Boston University. From 1959 to 1973, he directed the Ford Foundation's Contemporary Music Project, which placed young composers in residence in high schools with a salary to compose music for school ensembles and programs. In 2001, at the age of 88, Dello Joio continues to compose with no signs of retiring. His life achievements and compositions have enriched the landscape of American music. There are two other volumes available in this series (TROY344 & TROY359).

This recording covers more than 60 years of compositions and contains some of the very best French music for bassoon and piano. All but two of the composers were born in France and the two that were not (Tansman and Mihalovici) were profoundly influenced by French music and lived the majority of their lives in France. Bassooist Timothy McGovern is on the faculty at the University of Illinois, in addition to serviing as principal basson of the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Chamber Orchestra, Champaign-Urbana Sympony Orchestra, as well as being a member of the Prairie Winds Woodwind Quintet. The receipient of numerous awards and honors, McGovern's discography includes more than 30 recordings of orchestral, chamber music, and solo repertoire. Pianist Cara Chowning is on the faculty at Ball State University and has a very active career as a pianist and music director.

A sonata by Roger Sessions, pieces by Todd Brief, Robert Helps, and John Adams: a thread connects this recital of American piano music written over the past half century or so. Each piece exemplifies a distinctly American treatment of a traditional form or style of composing for the piano. The Sessions sonata is a one-movement work whose infrastructure reveals a three-movement sonata format that Haydn himself might recognize. Robert Helps uses the theme-and-variations form to pay homage to Fauré's lustrous chromaticism. John Adams's two minimalist studies recall the toccata, one of the oldest styles for exploiting the keyboard's capacity for demonstrating varieties of touch, texture, and speed. In Nightsong, which Todd Brief began by improvising at the piano, the composer reminds us of the historic link between composers like J.S. Bach and Chopin, virtuosos who like to improvise at the keyboard, and jazz composers, whose performances consist almost entirely of virtuoso improvisation.

Ori Barel is an inquisitive composer who works in a variety of mediums and styles. Barel works extensively with electronics, specializing in both electro-acoustic and electronic music. His electronic works combine algorithmic technique with an intuitie musical approach. He is a graduate of UCLA, the California Institute of the Arts and the University of California. Centrifugal Force is inspired primarily by robotic art. Barel has created a piece that explores aspects of our culture using elements of traditional and free jazz as well as silent film music, culminating in a musical fusion of today's technological world with pieces of the past. The use of a player piano means that rhythms and tempos can be used that would be impossible to be played accurately by a performer.

An acclaimed performer and teacher, Johanna Cox Pennington has been oboe professor at Louisiana State University School of Music since 2011 and a member of the Breckenridge Music Festival Orchestra since 2002. A graduate of Northwestern and Eastman, Pennington was chosen for Eastman's Freiburg Exchange Program that took her to Germany for advanced studies. She has performed with many orchestras including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She travels to Europe, South America, Asia and throughout the United States performing as a recitalist, chamber musician, and clinician. She has selected five world premieres for this recording, including a recording of Brett William Dietz's Voodoo Spells and Gris-gris. Pennington is joined on this recording by pianist Willis Delony, violinist Lenora Cox Leggatt, Brett William Dietz performing on the vibraphone, cellist Daniel Lelchuk and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Carlos Miguel Prieto.

Music for flute and piano is very popular these days, not only for performers to study but for serious listeners who are drawn to the sensuous sounds of that instrument. American music for this combination is remarkably popular, if you just look at the record listings. This new release not only features two premiere recordings (the Schocker and Warner) but a particular theme common to all four: the influence of jazz. Each of the composers embraces this form from a remarkably different perspective. For one, it is the use of direct lyric and rhythmic quotes; another employs jazz "licks" to create an echo of jazz. Occasionally, subtle references to major jazz players are brought into the mix. Sometimes the choice is to retain the "sound and feel" of jazz while remaining entirely original. This recording is a voyage with jazz as the reference point. The joy of this recording is participating in this journey, encountering the humorous, introspective, reckless, poignant, eclectic and alluring personalities that inhabit the jazz spirit. (It's interesting to note that these composers were all born within the period that jazz had its strongest hold on the public-especially the late 1950's.)

All of the music presented here, beautiful in its own right, is suitable for intermediate-level flutists to play. None have been widely recorded, so this recording offers performance models for younger students. These are lovely concert pieces by French composers written in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Flutist Leonard Garrison teaches at the Lionel Hampton School of Music at the University of Idaho and is principal flute of the Walla Walla Symphony. He has been flutist in the Chicago Symphony and Tulsa Philharmonic as well as president of the National Flute Association. His other recordings on Albany Records include works for flute and piano by American composers and two recordings of the Scott/Garrison Duo performing American works for clarinet and flute. His colleague at the University of Idaho, Roger McVey is the pianist on this recording.

The eight early works of Haydn featured on this recording, though variously titled partita and divertimento, are sonatas in all but name. They are committed to the new sonata style of the mid-eighteenth century, most often comprising three movements, the dance elements of the suite and partita having receded to a secondary role. At the time of their composition, probably between 17545 and 1765, Haydn was Kapellmeister to Count Morzin. He entered the service of the Esterhazy family as Vice-Kapellmeister in 1761. Beyond this, and the speculation that they may have been performed by the composer at court or used as teaching pieces, it is impossible to reconstruct their biographical and social context. Unpublished in the composer's lifetime, the works survive in manuscript copies bearing attribution only to Haydn. Only a single work, Hob.XVI-6 survives in an autograph manuscript and this is undated.