http://tinyurl.com/yqtpga Amazon.com has the CD. I would love to know what you think of the piano's sound. The piano lives in and was recorded in an acoustically- live, 700-seat hall. I have resisted pumping up the voicing... Kent On Feb 5, 2008, at 12:10 AM, Horace Greeley wrote: > > Hi, Kent, > > At 06:37 AM 2/3/2008, you wrote: >> Rarely do I get to enjoy reading the newspaper on a Sunday morning >> as much as this morning. The following review is of a CD produced >> at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. I provided the piano >> service. Fine recording. > > Some of my favorite "contemporary" literature...not often-enough > performed. How might one get a copy of this CD? Will it be > commercially available? > > Thanks very much for letting us know about this!! > > Best regards. > > Horace > > >> Kent Swafford >> >> >> >> February 3, 2008 >> Classical Recordings >> >> Discs Filled With Discoveries >> >> >> >> By THE NEW YORK TIMES >> >> COPLAND: PIANO VARIATIONS, PIANO SONATA, PIANO FANTASY >> >> Robert Weirich, pianist. Albany Records TROY 989; CD. >> >> IN general the concertgoing public may not think of Aaron Copland >> as a composer of piano music. Yet three of his most original, >> important and thorny compositions are works for that instrument: >> the Piano Variations (1930), the Piano Sonata (1939-41) and the >> Piano Fantasy (1955-57). It’s inexplicable that these landmark >> scores are not repertory staples. So thanks go to the acclaimed >> pianist Robert Weirich, also a noted teacher, author and composer, >> who has recorded the three works here in brilliant, probing and >> austerely beautiful performances. >> >> Those who know only the Americana Copland may be shocked by the >> ascetic, unabashedly modern Piano Variations. It begins with a >> steely, slow, angular four-note motif, followed by a dissonant, >> loud and lingering chord. The pitches announce themselves, to quote >> Mr. Weirich’s liner notes, “as if delivered on stone tablets from >> the mountaintop.” Thus begins an exhilarating 13-minute exploration >> of the theme through a myriad of means: canon, inversion, >> augmentation, transposition and other techniques championed at the >> time by the composers of the Second Viennese School. >> >> The Piano Sonata was written after Copland had enjoyed great >> success with populist scores like “Billy the Kid.” Yet despite >> moments of hymnal beauty and tart tonality, the sonata has a spare- >> textured and rigorous character. The three-movement structure is >> also unconventional, with slow outer movements framing a scherzo: >> perky, slightly jazzy music that keeps mischievously slipping out >> of its asymmetrical 5/8 meter. >> >> In the mid-’50s Copland appropriated the 12-tone technique for his >> Piano Fantasy, but on his own terms. The row, such as it is, has >> just 10 notes, and the piece has passages of lush yet fresh and >> acute tonal harmony. Mr. Weirich’s gripping account of this >> volatile, ingenious 30-minute fantasy makes the question of how >> Copland fashioned its harmonic language seem beside the point. >> ANTHONY TOMMASINI >> > _______________________ > > The Rev. Horace Greeley > Priest-in-Residence > St. Peter's Episcopal Church > 178 Clinton Ave. > Redwood City, CA 94062 > 650.367.0777 > > www.stpetersrwc.org > > _______________________ > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/caut.php/attachments/20080205/d25acbab/attachment.html
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