American Classics Barber and Copland
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AMERICAN CLASSICS BARBER AND COPLAND SEAN KENNARD, piano DE 3554 1 DELOS DE 3554 DELOS DE 3554 AMERICAN CLASSICS BARBER AND COPLAND SEAN KENNARD SEAN KENNARD SAMUEL BARBER ● ● Sonata for Piano, Op. 26 ♦ Ballade, Op. 46 AMERICAN CLASSICS AMERICAN CLASSICS Excursions, Op. 20 AARON COPLAND Piano Variations ♦ Four Piano Blues ● ● BARBER & COPLAND BARBER & COPLAND SEAN KENNARD, piano Total Playing Time: 55:07 DE 3554 © 2018 Delos Productions, Inc., P.O. Box 343, Sonoma, CA 95476-9998 (800) 364-0645 • (707) 996-3844 [email protected] • www.delosmusic.com AMERICAN CLASSICS BARBER AND COPLAND SAMUEL BARBER (1910−1981): Sonata for Piano, Op. 26 (18:24) 1. Allegro energico (6:59) 2. Allegro vivace e leggero (1:59) 3. Adagio mesto (5:28) 4. Fuga: Allegro con spirito (3:58) 5. Ballade, Op. 46 (5:12) Excursions, Op. 20 (11:54) 6. Un poco allegro (3:10) 7. In slow blues tempo (3:37) 8. Allegretto (2:51) 9. Allegro molto (2:16) AARON COPLAND (1900−1990): 10. Piano Variations (10:53) Four Piano Blues (8:37) 11. For Leo Smit — Freely poetic (2:28) 12. For Andor Foldes — Soft and languid (2:31) 13. For William Kapell — Muted and sensuous (2:34) 14. For John Kirkpatrick — With bounce (1:06) SEAN KENNARD, piano Total Playing Time: 55:07 8 NOTES ON THE PROGRAM more chromaticism and dissonance than he had used before, as well as twelve-tone or his Delos debut album, brilliant style. Such modern techniques notwith- emerging keyboard virtuoso Sean standing, Barber cast all four movements in FKennard has chosen piano music by traditional forms. Upon its 1949 premiere, two of America’s most iconic composers: the Sonata for Piano was immediately Samuel Barber and Aaron Copland. pronounced an American masterpiece. Horowitz himself called it “the first truly The first and third of the album’s Barber great native work in the form.” works — his Sonata for Piano and four- piece Excursions — are closely associated The first movement — Allegro energico — is with another virtuoso, legendary Rus- in sonata-allegro form. It’s a marvel of sian-American pianist Vladimir Horo- headlong intensity, contrasting Barber’s witz, who premiered both works. After penchant for free-flowing lyrical passages Horowitz’s resounding success in 1945 with craggy rhythmic shifts and angular with the first, second and fourth pieces harmonies. The following Allegro vivace from Excursions (the third wasn’t played e leggero is a sparkling and fleet-fingered because Schirmer — Barber’s publish- scherzo with exquisitely delicate textures. er — omitted it from the first edition), the The third movement — marked Adagio composer naturally had Horowitz in mind mesto — takes a darker turn, with partic- while working on the sonata (composed ular attention paid to chromaticism and between 1947 and 1949). Horowitz’s vir- twelve-tone melodies. The final Fuga: Al- tuosity no doubt influenced the sonata’s legro con spirito is imbued with much the often fiendish technical difficulty. And same spirit with which the sonata began. while Barber originally envisioned his so- It’s a powerful and hard-driving four- nata as a three-movement work, Horowitz voice fugue that reflects Barber’s love of prevailed upon him to end it with a “very Bach and even expands into five and six flashy” fourth movement. mind-bending voices. Listen for the com- plex rhythms and jazzy harmonies in this Owing to the prevailing judgment that final movement, which ends the work with Barber’s earlier music reverted to a more a resounding bang. Romantic era, the composer resolved to craft his new work using more up-to-date The Op. 46 Ballade — Barber’s final work compositional techniques, including much for piano — dates from 1977, almost a 2 year after he had been asked to compose The opening piece — marked Un poco a “morceau de concours” (test piece) for allegro — has a distinctly metropolitan the Van Cliburn competition. The piece’s flavor, with its hubbub of skillfully craft- rather dark and pensive mood is hardly ed “urban” musical clichés. Barber’s bi- a surprise, given Barber’s loneliness and ographer, Nathan Broder, described it as periodic depression after his nearly for- a “boogie-woogie,” owing to its repeti- ty-year relationship with fellow compos- tive bass-line patterns that characterize er Gian Carlo Menotti had ended a few early American jazz. Listen for its catchy years earlier. Still, this masterfully crafted rhythms and playful sense of headlong work — while expressing distinct feelings momentum. The second of these so-called of sadness and resignation — stops short bagatelles, In slow blues tempo, reveals an of despair or hopelessness. atmosphere of cheeky, stop-and-go com- placence, despite what the title may imply. Written in ABA form, the piece opens with a series of descending chords that are then The third piece, Allegretto, takes listeners repeated with minor variation. An abrupt along on an excursion into the folk music upward surge leads into a memorable of the American West, with a set of clever theme comprising three motifs that arise variations on the classic Western song “The from and return to a single chord. From Streets of Laredo.” Beginning as a touching there, a sinking phrase soon dissolves the lament, the work’s subdued mood is soon prevailing harmonic scheme before the dispelled by variations that are alternative- near-violent central section erupts. The ly jazzy and frisky. The final Allegro molto opening section then repeats, carrying takes the unmistakable form of a manic listeners to an ending that breathes quiet square dance, full of thorny rhythms that acceptance. can test even a virtuoso’s abilities. In his Excursions, Barber built all four Many musicologists and classical musi- movements upon distinctly different as- cians — and others who respect “modern- pects of musical Americana, basing each ist” styles and harmonic structures — re- one on either traditional American idioms gard Aaron Copland’s Piano Variations or folk songs. But despite Barber’s often as one of his most significant early mas- sophisticated elaborations, listeners famil- terpieces. Written in 1930, the work can iar with such American motifs can clearly stand as one of the final outcomes of the hear them. years he spent in Paris as a student of the 3 legendary Nadia Boulanger, who helped ble mentally processing the meanderings expose him to the prevailing styles and of the twelve-tone system — will seldom emerging musical movements in Europe. “get lost” in the music. And despite its varying levels of musical appeal, no one The work’s craggy rhythms, sharply dis- can dispute the crucial place the Piano sonant harmonies, twelve-tone elements Variations will forever hold as a milestone and astringent textures first met with in Copland’s musical development. mixed reviews from performers, audienc- es and critics. The great German pianist Copland composed the short pieces Walter Gieseking — who Copland hoped that comprise his Four Piano Blues at would perform it — commented that the different points in his career. The first piece’s “crude dissonances” and “severity two were written in 1926, and the latter of style” would alienate most audiences. two — created in 1947 and 1948 — pro- And its first New York Times review was vided melodic content that he adapted distinctly unfavorable. Yet forward-look- for his 1948 Clarinet Concerto. But the ing musicians like Leonard Bernstein four pieces weren’t published as a set un- (among others) came to champion the til 1949, after Copland had revised them, piece, describing it as “... hard as nails” determined their sequence, and decided and a “…synonym for modern music — so on a dedicatee for each work, drawn from prophetic, harsh and wonderful, and so among his friends and colleagues. Each full of modern feeling and thinking.” piece thus has a title identifying the per- son to whom it was dedicated, as well as Most open-minded listeners can follow a subtitle drawn from its tempo marking. the progress of the work — a theme and All four feature recognizable elements of twenty variations—with relative ease, American jazz and blues, though cloaked thanks to its four-note theme (E — C — D somewhat in the impressionistic styles of sharp — C sharp) that serves as the work’s Debussy and Ravel. building blocks. Once attentive listeners allow these four notes to sink into their The first piece is “For Leo Smit — Freely musical consciousness, the piece’s sense poetic” (Leo Smit the American compos- of musical continuity is rarely lost. er-pianist, not the Dutch composer of the same name), and reflects a bluesy style Even those listeners who cringe at strong, and sound reminiscent of Gershwin. The spiky dissonances — and who have trou- second is “For Andor Foldes — Soft and 4 languid,” Foldes being a famous Hungari- the pianist’s “perfect blend of lyricism and an-American pianist. The subtitle certainly romantic passion, huge romantic sound, reflects the piece’s overall mood, but with and bold melodic vision.” It further pro- fleeting moments of a livelier nature. Next claimed that he “plays Chopin’s Preludes comes “For William Kapell — Muted and with more poise and vision than most sensuous,” with its substantial opening pianists who have recorded them.” Fan- chords lending the piece a more serious fare named the album “a very desirable and stately feel. Finally, we hear “For John disc,” citing “Kennard’s mastery of Cho- Kirkpatrick — With bounce.” (Both Kapell pin’s idiom” and “impression of complete and Kirkpatrick were renowned pianists effortlessness.” Naxos Records released as well.) As the subtitle suggests, this is his album of sonatas by Domenico Scar- a much more energetic piece, but with a latti in 2017.