Barber / Bernstein / Castellanos / Saint Thomas - American Voices - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

For his debut album on Delos, the brilliant emerging virtuoso Sean Kennard has chosen a captivating program featuring solo piano music by two of America's most iconic composers Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland. While neither composer's body of work includes a great many pieces for solo piano, each has left a legacy of superb piano compositions to memorable effect. Of the five works on this album, Barber's finger-twisting Sonata for Piano and Copland's stunning Piano Variations stand as enduring masterpieces of twentieth-century American piano music. Both pieces incorporate broad spectrums of modernist musical language and styles, as well as degrees of difficulty that only the finest and most technically accomplished artists can master. And most of the shorter pieces offer delightfully evocative treatments of musical Americana. Album Tracks 1. Sonata for Piano, Op. 26 2. Ballade, Op. 46 3. Excursions, Op. 20 4. Piano Variations 5. Four Piano Blues

America, you are better off - wrote Goethe in 1827, weary of German Romanticism and the Inchfruitless wranglingInch of sterile debates. A century later, the New World experienced an unprecedented wave of migration consisting of leading figures, largely Jewish, from the cultural and intellectual spheres of German and Austrian life. The composers among them were attracted by the rich rewards that seemed to be on offer from the new world of sound film in Hollywood, but few were able to reap those rewards to the full among those few, who were able to make their way in a competitive marketplace through pragmatism and perseverance, were Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Miklos Rozsa - both regularly nominated for Oscars and frequently successful. While making a living from this genre of Inchmusic dramaInch, each of them -whether or not they were recognized by the classical music business - sought to push the limits of the traditional formats and were remarkably successful in doing so. Taking a phone call, Rozsa could scarcely believe that the legendary virtuoso really was seriously interested in his Violin Concerto and was ready to give the work it's premiere - but so he did in 1956, and the first recording of the work, with it's extreme technical challenges, was also made by Heifetz. And it had been just the same with the Violin Concerto by Korngold, Rozsa's senior by ten years the 1947 premiere and the brilliant first recording of this twentieth-century classic again showcased Heifetz as soloist. In the new generation of genuinely American musicians, one outstanding figure was Leonard Bernstein, an all-rounder whose early success led on to even greater heights here too, one can hardly ignore his contribution to film music, even if it amounts to one single film. Bernstein rated his Violin Concerto of 1954, InchSerenadeInch, inspired by Plato's Symposium, as his best work ever

American Originals 1918 is the newest from the Cincinnati Pops conducted by John Morris Russell and features iconic American songs interpreted by a diverse array of acclaimed musical collaborators including MacArthur InchGeniusInch Fellow Rhiannon Giddens, Grammy-winning Steep Canyon Rangers, Americana artist Pokey LaFarge, and tap dancer Robyn Watson. The follow-up to the Pops' innovative American Originals album, American Originals 1918 reimagines songs first brought to life in the first third of the 20th century as well as American popular standards from World War I and some of the first well-known tunes from the advent of jazz. The 95th Cincinnati Pops album includes fresh new renditions of InchOver There,Inch InchGod Bless America,Inch InchSwing Along,Inch InchMemphis Blues,Inch InchI'm Just Wild About Harry,Inch InchHow Ya Gonna Keep 'em Down on the Farm,Inch and InchI Ain't Got Nobody,Inch among many other classic tunes. In addition, the collection includes the world premiere of Grammy-nominated composer Peter Boyer's InchIn the Cause of the Free,Inch commissioned by the Pops to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the end of World War I. Album Tracks 1. Hello Cincinnati! 0 00 10 2. Hey There! (Arr. T. Berens for Orchestra) 0 02 40 3. How 'Ya Gonna Keep 'Em Down on the Farm 0 03 56 4. Over There (Arr. R. Mounsey) 0 04 06 5. I Ain't Gonna Play No Second Fiddle 0 04 10 6. At the Darktown Strutters Ball (Arr. J Price for Orchestra) 0 04 16 7. Night Owl 0 03 55 8. Runnin' Wild (Arr. R. Mounsey for Orchestra) 0 03 16 9. In Dahomey Swing Along 0 03 21 10. God Bless America (Arr. R. Mounsey for Orchestra) 0 03 38 11. In the Cause of the Free 0 06 56 12. Prairie Lullaby 0 03 18 13. Shuffle Along I'm Just Wild About Harry 0 03 00 14. Cocoanut Grove Jazz 0 02 49 15. Memphis Blues 0 03 32 16. Remember 0 02 58 17. I Ain't Got Nob