Frank Almond
Portraits and Elegies
Innova 763
Philip Lasser
1 Vocalise 5:58
2 Berceuse Fantasque 6:52
Ned Rorem
from Day Music and Night
Music
3 Pearls 1:46
4 Extreme Leisure 4:15
5 Bats 1:46
6 Billet Doux (Love Letter) 1:03
7 Another Ground 3:27
8 Gnats 1:56
9 Lighthouse 3:27
10 Saying Goodbye, Driving Off 2:35
Peter Lieberson
11 Elegy 7:32
Russell Platt
Autumn Music:
12 Adagio, Amoroso 9:03
13 Lamentoso (Chaconne) 9:21
Frank Almond, violin
(Stradivari, 1715, "ex-Lipinski")
Brian Zeger, piano
Philip Lasser
Vocalise
I wrote my Vocalise in
April 1999, inspired by the mournful eponymous work by Rachmaninov. Just as in
his work, my Vocalise is not simply about a melody alone but rather the
interplay between the melody and the counterpoint hidden beneath it in the
harmonies of the piano. These lines that live in the sonorities of the piano,
serve to light up different areas of the violin melody much like spotlights are
used to illuminate a sculpture; one does not consciously acknowledge their
existence, one notices only the beauty of the artwork.
Originally
for violin and piano, the work became the middle movement - Vocalise for Orchestra
- of my Circle of Dreams, a symphony in three movements, commissioned and premiered by
Maestro Gerard Schwarz and The New York Chamber Symphony. Since then it has
received many performances around the world and has been transcribed for many
different instrumental combinations.
— PL
Berceuse Fantasque
for violin and piano
On the first
page of Philip Lassers Berceuse
Fantasque for violin and piano
there figures the following epigraph: ...et rve la berceuse.
(...and dreams the one who sings the lullaby.) The
composer writes that his Berceuse
Fantasque is as much about the
lullaby as it is about the one who sings the lullaby. Thus after a tender first
section, representing a lullaby sung to a child, we step into the more troubled
dream world of the one who just sang the child to sleep. Fears and phantasms
rise and fall as we return to the lullaby now heard from within the singers
heart.
Composer of
poetic and lyrical music, Philip Lasser (b. 1963) has crafted a unique
soundworld blending the subtle colors of French Impressionist sonorities with
the crisp, direct sounds and rhythms of Americas jaunty musical palette. Standing apart from the modernist
trends and experiments, Philip Lasser has devoted himself to the refinement of
personal expression through an economy of gesture and a blossoming of color.
Philip Lasser
writes for all formations and has been performed by artists and orchestras the
world over. Recently, the American pianist Simone Dinnerstein has triumphed his
works for piano, in particular by performing and recording his 12 Variations on
a Chorale by J.S. Bach. In
recognition of his distinct musical voice, Philip Lasser recently received the
Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and
Letters. This prize is awarded in collaboration with the C.F. Peters
Corporation to publish and promote the work of an American composer.
Philip
Lassers works are published by Editions Max Eschig in Paris and by Peters
Editions and Rassel Editions in New York.
Philip Lasser received his BA Summa Cum Laude in Music from Harvard
College. At the age of 15 he studies counterpoint, harmony and composition with
Nadia Boulangers close disciple and colleague, Narcis Bonet. In 1994 Philip
Lasser received his Doctorate in Composition from the Juilliard School where he
studied with David Diamond. <www.philiplasser.com>
Dr. Lasser is
professor at The Juilliard School since 1994 where he teaches composition,
counterpoint, harmony and analysis. Philip Lasser is also President and
Director of EAMA, the European American Musical Alliance, Inc. which runs a
summer music program in composition, chamber music and conducting at the Ecole
Normale de Musique de Paris. <www.eamusic.org>
Ned Rorem
from Day Music and Night Music
Ned Rorems
musical language is beautifully embodied in these short, aphoristic pieces.
They fall roughly into two categories: brilliant show pieces which showcase
virtuoso writing for both violin and piano, and subdued minimalist pieces where
the white space between the notes is as important as the notes themselves.
In the first
category, Pearls has a Gallic suaveness, intertwining piano and violin lines
in a manner reminiscent of French salon music. Both Bats and Gnats are
hard-driven showpieces, Gnats also profiting from the rhythms and sharp edges
of American jazz.
Among the
slower pieces, Another Ground spins a hypnotic web with a recurring slow
piano arpeggio that never varies. Billet Doux is like a fragile French
mlodie, a form in which Rorem excels.
Extreme
Leisure is an homage to Ravels Le Gibet from
Gaspard de la Nuit. Like Ravels tolling bell, the entire piece revolves
around two E flats, creating a harmonic pivot and an inexorable source of
tension. Rorem brilliantly varies the harmonies around this pivot in a rising
arc of intensity before falling back to lone tolling of the E flats.
We end our
selections from Day Music and Night Music with Saying Goodbye, Driving
Off, an enigmatic work that seems both a farewell and an elegiac look back.
We chose
these particular pieces for their own appeal to us, and in accordance with the
composers instructions that these works may be performed individually or in a group according to the needs at hand.
— FA,
BZ
Words and
music are inextricably linked for Ned Rorem. Time Magazine has called him the
worlds best composer of art songs, yet his musical and literary ventures
extend far beyond this specialized field. Rorem has composed three symphonies,
four piano concertos and an array of other orchestral works, music for numerous
combinations of chamber forces, ten operas, choral works of every description,
ballets and other music for the theater, and literally hundreds of songs and
cycles. He is the author of sixteen books, including five volumes of diaries
and collections of lectures and criticism.
Rorem is one
of Americas most honored composers. In addition to a Pulitzer Prize, awarded
in 1976 for his suite Air Music, Rorem has been the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship
(1951), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1957), and an award from the National
Institute of Arts and Letters (1968). He is a three-time winner of the
ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award; in 1998 he was chosen Composer of the Year by Musical
America. The Atlanta Symphony recording of the String Symphony, Sunday Morning, and Eagles received a Grammy Award for Outstanding Orchestral Recording
in 1989. From 2000 to 2003 he served as President of the American Academy of
Arts and Letters. In 2003 he received ASCAPs Lifetime Achievement Award, and
in January 2004 the French government named him Chevalier of the Order of Arts
and Letters.
Rorem was
born in Richmond, Indiana on October 23, 1923. As a child he moved to Chicago
with his family; by the age of ten his piano teacher had introduced him to
Debussy and Ravel, an experience which changed my
life forever, according to the composer. At seventeen he entered the Music
School of Northwestern University, two years later receiving a scholarship to
the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He studied composition under Bernard
Wagenaar at Juilliard, taking his B.A. in 1946 and his M.A. degree (along with
the $1,000 George Gershwin Memorial Prize in composition) in 1948. In New York
he worked as Virgil Thomsons copyist in return for $20 a week and
orchestration lessons. He studied on fellowship at the Berkshire Music Center
in Tanglewood in the summers of 1946 and 1947; in 1948 his
song The
Lordly Hudson was voted the best published song of that year by the
Music Library Association.
In 1949 Rorem
moved to France, and lived there until 1958. His years as a young composer
among the leading figures of the artistic and social milieu of post-war Europe
are absorbingly portrayed in The Paris
Diary and The
New York Diary, 1951-1961
(reissued by Da Capo, 1998). He currently lives in New York City.
Peter Lieberson
Elegy
When we first
played Peter Liebersons Elegy, its transparent and episodic quality, as well as the
intriguing harmonic language and generally lyrical writing for the violin
immediately struck both of us.
Beginning
with a quiet violin solo, Elegy unfolds in a spare, haunting idiom which
speaks of both loss and consolation. When the piano joins the violin in a
series of soft chords enriched by tremolos and trills, the work reaches the
first of several quiet climaxes.
The violin soars to its upper ranges in a cantabile section
reminiscent of vocal writing. This gives way to a richer harmonic idiom
elaborated by arpeggios in the piano before the piece subsides in a dreamy slow
waltz, tapering off to nothing.
Robert
McDuffie and Ruth Laredo premiered Elegy in 1990. It was commissioned from Peter Lieberson in memory
of Tamara Strickland and was also composed in memory of his brother.
— FA, BZ
Peter
Lieberson was born in New York City in 1946 and now lives in Santa Fe. He is
the son of the late Goddard Lieberson, former president of Columbia Records,
and the ballerina Vera Zorina. Liebersons principal teachers in composition
were Milton Babbitt, Charles Wuorinen, Donald Martino, and Martin Boykan. After
completing musical studies at Columbia University, he left New York City in
1976 for Boulder, Colorado to continue his studies with Chogyam Trungpa, a
Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhist master he met in 1974. Lieberson then moved to
Boston to direct Shambhala Training, a meditation and cultural program. During
this period he also attended Brandeis University and received his Ph.D. From
1984 to 1988 he taught at Harvard University, then became international
director of Shambhala Training in Halifax. Since 1994 he has devoted his time
exclusively to composition. Among Liebersons many awards are those from the
National Institute of Arts and Letters and a Brandeis Creative Arts Award. In
2006, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His music is published exclusively by
Associated Music Publishers.
Russell Platt
Autumn Music
When in 2007
my friend Frank Almond asked me for a short piece for him to program with Brian
Zeger, I had nothing to offer—except for the advice that he might do the
second and third movements of my Sonata
for Violin and Piano on their
own. I decided to call the result Autumn Music not only for its contemplative
and mournful character but because Autumn Sonata (having nothing to do with
the Bergman film) was a working title for the piece as a whole.
The Sonata, which was
premiered by Leslie Shank and Lydia Artymiw on a Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
Ensembles concert in April of 2005, was composed in 2004-5 and revised in 2007.
Its bravura first movement, here excised, provides the motivic material for the
Adagio
of Autumn Music, a fantasia based on two alternating and constantly
developing ideas. The finale is a loose interpretation of a Chaconne;
beginning with a theme that recalls the Handel violin sonatas I played as a
teenager, it winds its path through a number of moods and styles to an
unequivocal close.
— RP
Russell Platt (b. New York, 1965),
is a noted composer in the chamber, song, and concerto genres. A frequent guest
at the Yaddo colony, his music has won awards from ASCAP, Copland House, and
the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Charles Ives Scholarship and
Fellowship, 1990 and 2001), among others. Performers who have advocated for his
work include the baritone Thomas Meglioranza, the bassoonist Peter Kolkay, the
violinists Frank Almond, Livia Sohn and Mark Peskanov, the New York Festival of
Song, the Dale Warland Singers, the Verdehr Trio, the St. Petersburg Quartet,
and the members of Brooklyn Rider. Since 2000 he has been a music editor at The
New Yorker.
Frank Almond
Violinist Frank
Almond holds the Charles and Marie Caestecker Concertmaster Chair at the
Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. He returned to the MSO after holding positions as
Concertmaster of the Rotterdam Philharmonic with Valery Gergiev, and
Concertmaster of the London Philharmonic with Kurt Masur .
He continues an active schedule of recital and chamber music performances in
the US and abroad along with various solo appearances with orchestras. He has
been a member of the chamber group An die Musik in New
York City since 1997, and is Artistic Director of the Frankly Music series
based in Milwaukee, a hugely successful project now in its sixth season.
At 17, he was
one of the youngest prizewinners in the history of the Nicolo Paganini
Competition in Genoa, Italy, and five years later was one of two American
prizewinners at the Eighth International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow,
which was documented in an award-winning PBS film. Since then he has kept up an
eclectic mix of activities in addition to his Concertmaster duties, appearing
both as a soloist and chamber musician around the world.
In addition
to his work with An die Musik, Mr. Almonds talent as
a chamber musician has generated collaborations with many of todays well-known
institutions, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the
Ravinia Festival, the Hal Leonard Corporation, the Ojai Festival, La Jolla
Summerfest, Music in the Vineyards, and numerous other summer festivals. He has
recorded for AVIE, Summit, Albany, Boolean (his own label), Newport Classic,
Wergo and New Albion and has appeared numerous times on NPRs Performance Today.
In both 2002 and 2004 An die Musik received Grammy
nominations for its Timeless Tales series. The re-release of Mr. Almonds
recording of the complete Brahms Sonatas, performed in collaboration with
pianist William Wolfram, brought extraordinary critical acclaim, and was listed
in the American Record Guide top recordings of 2001. Franks latest CD with
William Wolfram was released on the AVIE label, and was named a Best of 2007
by the American Record Guide.
Mr. Almond
holds two degrees from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Dorothy
Delay. When hes not traveling around playing the violin he lives in Milwaukee
with his wife and two young daughters. In 2008 he started writing an online
column called nondivisi.
He plays on
the Lipinski Stradivarius from 1715, generously loaned by an anonymous donor;
this CD is the first commercial recording ever of this famous instrument.
<www.frankalmond.com>
Brian Zeger
Pianist Brian
Zeger has built an important career not only as a pianist, appearing in
distinguished concert venues throughout the United States and Europe, but also
as an ensemble performer par excellence, radio broadcaster, artistic
administrator and educator.
In a career
spanning more than two decades, Mr. Zeger has enjoyed collaborations with many
of the worlds top artists including Marilyn Horne, Kathleen Battle, Arleen
Auger, Bryn Terfel, Thomas Hampson, Adrianne Pieczonka, Hei-Kyung Hong, Juliane
Banse and Joyce DiDonato. Recent and upcoming engagements include
recitals with Deborah Voigt, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Frederica von Stade, Susan
Graham, Denyce Graves and Ren Pape.
Mr. Zeger
also enjoys an active career as a chamber musician. From 1993-2000 he was
artistic director of the Cape and Islands Chamber Music Festival, headquartered
on Cape Cod and now in its 31st season, where his performances included
collaborations with the Borromeo and Brentano Quartets as well as with Bernard
Greenhouse, Glenn Dicterow, Eugene Drucker and Paula Robison. He has been a
regular guest at many other summer festivals including Aspen, Ravinia,
Caramoor, Aldeburgh, and Santa Fe, and has collaborated regularly with An die Musik and the New York Philharmonic Chamber
Ensembles. He has also made concerto appearances with the Boston Pops.
In addition
to his distinguished concert career, he also serves as Artistic Director of the
Vocal Arts Department at The Juilliard School, the director of the vocal
program at the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival and has recently taken
on the role of Executive Director of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young
Artists Development Program. He has been on the faculties of the
Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, the Chautauqua Institute, the
Mannes College of Music and the Peabody Conservatory and has given master
classes for numerous institutions, including The Guildhall School of Music in
London, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Tanglewood Music Center, and
the Marilyn Horne Foundation.
Some of his
critical essays and other writings have appeared in Opera News, The Yale Review
and Chamber Music magazine. He has appeared frequently on the Metropolitan
Opera radio broadcasts both on the opera quiz and as intermission host and
performer. He has the distinction of creating, narrating and performing
in five intermission features devoted to art song, a first in the
long history of the Met broadcasts. He has adjudicated the Metropolitan
Opera National Council Auditions, the Concert Artists Guild auditions and the
Walter W. Naumberg Vocal Competition. His recordings may be heard on the EMI
Classics, New World, Naxos and Koch record labels, his most recent recording
being All My Heart, a recital of American songs with soprano Deborah Voigt.
Born in
upstate New York, Mr. Zeger is now a resident of Manhattan. He holds a
bachelors degree in English Literature from Harvard College, a masters degree
from The Juilliard School and a doctorate from the Manhattan School of
Music. His important teachers have included Morris Borenstein, Sascha
Gorodnitzki and Nina Svetlanova.
<www.brianzeger.com>
Credits
Recorded at
the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center Aug. 20-22, 2008
Steinway
piano
Stradivari
violin 1715, ex-Lipinski
Produced by
Evans Mirageas
Engineered by
Ric Probst
Cover
painting by Ben Moore
Expert page
turning by Yin Yan
Special
thanks to the Milwaukee Youth Arts Center, Kate, Charlene, and to all the
composers for their work and extraordinary patience.
Publishers:
Lasser: Vocalise- Rassel
Editions
Lasser: Berceuse- Max
Eschig
Rorem- Boosey
and Hawkes
Lieberson-
Associated Music Publishers
Platt-
Russell Platt.
Photos:
Lasser: Nancy
Lee Katz
Rorem: Jack
Mitchell
Lieberson:
Rinchen Lhamo
Platt: Peter
Kolkay
Almond: Brian
McKonkey
Zeger: Jared
Slater
innova is supported by an endowment from the McKnight Foundation.
Philip
Blackburn: director, design
Chris
Campbell: operations manager
www.innova.mu