Hi, Kent, At 02:58 AM 2/5/2008, you wrote: ><http://tinyurl.com/yqtpga>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... On order. Thanks very much. Best. Horace >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 >>> >>><http://www.nytimes.com/> >>>The New York Times >>><http://www.nytimes.com/> >>> >>>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 >>><http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/c/aaron_copland/index.html?inline=nyt-per>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/20080205/1e99c8a5/attachment.html
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