Robert Xavier Rodriguez: Works for Piano

Robert Xavier Rodriguez has been called “one of the major American composers of his generation” (Texas Monthly), and his music has been described as “richly lyrical” by Musical America. He first gained international recognition in 1971 when he was awarded the Prix de Composition Musicale Prince Pierre de Monaco. Other honors include the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has served as Composer-in-Residence with both the San Antonio and Dallas symphonies, and he is on the faculty at the University of Texas at Dallas. Composer Robert Xavier Rodriguez comments that his teacher Nadia Boulanger told him “that I would be only half a composer until I also learned to express in my music the same love of laughter that she knew I enjoyed as a person I think Boulanger would be pleased to see that all of the pieces on this CD, dating from the 80s to the present, incorporate humor in some way.” Noted pianist Jeff Lankov, who has edited Rodriguez’s piano works for G. Schirmer, gives informed, sensitive performances of this delightful music.