|
Mid-Century Modern-Four Sonatas for Viola & Piano
Artist:
Joël Belgique, Cary Lewis & Tomas Svoboda
Format: CD
New: In Stock $23.99
Wish
Formats and Editions
1. Rebecca Clarke Sonata For Viola And Piano: I. Impetuoso
2. Rebecca Clarke Sonata For Viola And Piano: II. Vivace
3. Rebecca Clarke Sonata For Viola And Piano: III. Adagio
4. Sonata For Viola And Piano: I. Allegretto
5. Sonata For Viola And Piano: II Andante Espressivo
6. Sonata For Viola And Piano: III Allegro
7. Jacob Avshalomov Sonatine For Viola And Piano: I Allegro Appassionato
8. Jacob Avshalomov Sonatine For Viola And Piano: Lento
9. Jacob Avshalomov Sonatine For Viola And Piano: Allegro Con Brio
10. Tomas Svoboda Sonata For Viola And Piano: Allegro
11. Tomas Svoboda Sonata For Viola And Piano: Lento
12. Tomas Svoboda Sonata For Viola And Piano: Allegro Con Humore
More Info:
??mid-century modern four sonatas for viola and piano ?? It ?has been said that the long neglect of the viola as a solo instrument was due in large measure to the dearth of talented players. That situation was reversed irrevocably in the early twentieth century, as the instrument finally came into it's own - thanks to the efforts of great perform- ers such as Lionel Tertis, Maurice Vieux, and William Primrose, who inspired scores of renowned composers to write new works for the repertoire (and, in the case of Tertis, even contributed improvements to the design of the instrument itself). In the words of Jacob Avshalomov, the viola offers a "unique spectrum of sound, which ranges from the sombre and gruff through mellow- ness and vibrancy into lyricism without loss of power." The works featured on this recording (not least Avshalomov's Sonatine) require the violist to elicit all of those qualities and more, as they explore and extend the expressive possibilities of the viola-piano pairing. The range of stylistic influences in these pieces is broad - Impres- sionism, Neoclassicism, folk music, polytonality - yet they never become mere formal essays. Deeply felt, following the narrative arc embedded in the sonata form, each piece becomes a journey in sound; taken together they form a travelogue through the early and middle decades of the century. As listeners, we are fortunate indeed to have Joël Belgique and his compatriots, whose playing is at all moments passionate, rivetingly focused, and beautifully nuanced, as our guides on this sojourn. David Abel rebecca clarke sonata for viola and piano (1919) Rebecca Clarke was born in Harrow, England, in 1886, to an Ameri- can father and German mother. She began to study the violin at the age of eight, and in 1902 entered the Royal Academy of Music, where she continued her violin studies and began to compose. Though her father disapproved of her desire to become a professional musician, he sent some of her songs to Sir Charles Stanford, professor of composition at the Royal College of Music, and mentor to a generation of English composers (Vaughn Williams, Holst, Ireland, Bridge, and others). In 1907 Clarke became one of Stanford's first woman students; at his suggestion, she joined the college orchestra and switched to the viola. In 1912, she became the first female member of the Queen's Hall Orchestra; her career as a violist blossomed after the First World War, and she was a much-sought chamber musician whose partners included Artur Schnabel, Pablo Casals, Jacques Thibaud, Artur Rubinstein, and Percy Grainger, among many others. She made regular visits to New York and participated in Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge's chamber music festivals in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, beginning in 1916; in 1923 she made a world tour, and in 1925 gave a concert of her own works in Wigmore Hall, London, featuring Myra Hess. Clarke divided her time between England and the United States during the 1930s; she was forced by English authorities to stay in New York at the inception of World War II, and lived the rest of her life in the States. In 1944 she married pianist and composer James Friskin, who had been a fellow student at the Royal College; she retired from performing and for the most part gave up composing. When she died in New York in 1979, at the age of ninety-three, she had been mostly forgotten, and most of her compositions remained unpublished. In the 1990s renewed attention was given to her work, including the beginning of a spate of recordings that continues; in 2005 the Rebecca Clarke Reader was published, edited by Liane Curtis, including Clarke's writings on music, several interviews with the composer, and essays on her life and work. Clarke's early fame as a composer was due to two works, the Sonata for Viola and Piano and the Trio Sonata, both submitted to competitions spon- sored by Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, and both second-place winners (in 1919 and 1921, respectively). The Viola Sonata was submitted under the pseudonym Anthony Trent; it tied for first prize, and when the jury could not decide, Coolidge cast the deciding vote for the sonata by Ernest Bloch. The jury insisted on knowing the identity of the runner-up, despite the rules of the competition, which stated that only the winner's name would be revealed; they stated that the winning piece "was the work of a philosopher, the other, that of a poet." Apparently all were shocked to discover that the composer was a woman. The Viola Sonata remains Clarke's best-known and most frequently recorded work. ? ?marion bauer sonata for viola and piano op. 22 (1932) Marion Bauer was born in Walla Walla, Washington, in 1882, to French-Jewish immigrant parents. The youngest of seven children, Marion began studying piano as a young child with her eldest sibling, Emilie. On the death of her father in 1890, the family moved to Portland, Oregon; after finishing secondary school there in 1898, Marion joined Emilie in New York City, where she studied with Henry Holden Huss and Eugene Heffly, in addition to her sister. In 1905, she met the French violinist Raul Pugno; she tutored Pugno and his family in English, and in exchange Pugno invited her to study with him in Paris. There she became the first in the distinguished line of Americans to study composition with Nadia Boulanger, again in exchange for English lessons. Bauer returned to New York in 1907, and continued her studies with Heffley and Walter Henry Rothwell, also beginning to teach piano and music theory herself. Over the next fifteen years, she continued to pursue further studies in Europe (with Paul Ertel in Berlin, and André Gédalge in Paris), though by this time she had established herself as a serious composer. In 1926, on Emilie's death, Marion assumed her sister's role as music critic for The Musical Leader. She went on to work as a reviewer for many other journals, including Musical Quarterly, and wrote several popular books, including the highly regarded Twentieth-Century Music. Also in 1926, Bauer began teaching at New York University, becoming an associate professor in 1930 and remaining on the faculty until 1951 (counting among her students Milton Babbitt); she taught and lectured as well at Juilliard, Columbia Univer- sity, the Institute of Musical Arts, the summer Chautaqua Institute, Mills College, the Carnegie Institute, the Cincinnati Conservatory, and elsewhere. Bauer helped found the American Music Guild, the American Music Center, and the American Composer's Alliance, serving on the board of the latter; in 1937, Aaron Copland founded the League of Composers, and asked Bauer to serve on the executive board of that organization as well. Despite her busy teaching, lecturing, and writing schedule, Bauer kept up an active compositional career. She spent many summers between 1917 and 1944 at the Macdowell Colony, focused on composition (it was there, in 1929, that she met Ruth Crawford Seeger, beginning a lifelong friendship). Many of Bauer's works of the 1920s and 1930s were devoted to exploring new harmonic idioms; the Sonata for Viola and Piano, cast in traditional forms, nonetheless shows Bauer a committed modernist, with it's harmonic and rhythmic liveliness. Among her best-known works, it was performed at an all-Bauer tribute concert at Town Hall in 1951, as well as at a memorial concert in 1956. Marion Bauer died in 1955, in South Hadley, Massachusetts, at the age of seventy-three. Though her memory is secured by her prominent role as a writer, critic, professor, and tireless promoter of modern music, Bauer's works are too seldom performed and recorded, despite her catalogue of 160 orchestral and chamber compositions. Jacob avshalomov sonatine for viola and piano (1947) Jacob Avshalomov is at the center of three generations of an extraordinary musical family: the son of composer Aaron Avshalomov (born in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur, Russia, 1894; died in New York City, 1965), and father of both compo
