Ezra Laderman University

Acknowledgments the Plaut Kimball Recording Studio, Sprague Memorial Hall, Yale University. Decade was recorded August, 2019 at Recorded and edited by Gene Kimball. the Plaut Kimball Recording Studio, Partita for Solo Cello No. 2 was recorded Sprague Memorial Hall, Yale University. at the Plaut Kimball Recording Studio, Recorded and edited by Matthew Sprague Memorial Hall, Yale University. LeFevre. Recorded by Gene Kimball. Edited by Elegy for Bassoon and Partita for Solo Gene Kimball and Matthew LeFevre. Bassoon were recorded Summer, 2016 Partita for Violin was recorded March at the Plaut Kimball Recording Studio, 2, 2016 at the Plaut Kimball Recording Sprague Memorial Hall, Yale University. Studio, Sprague Memorial Hall, Yale Recorded by Gene Kimball and Matthew Ezra Laderman University. Recorded by Gene Kimball. LeFevre. Edited by Matthew LeFevre. Edited by Gene Kimball and Matthew Interior Landscapes I and Interior LeFevre. CHAMBER WORKS 2002-2013 Landscapes II were recorded Summer Mastering by Matthew LeFevre. 2008 at the Plaut Kimball Recording Studio, Sprague Memorial Hall, Yale Photo Credits University. Recorded by Gene Kimball. Ezra Laderman: Jacob Laderman Edited by Greg Anderson. Robert Blocker: Bob Handelman Piano Sonata No. 5 was recorded David Kaplan: Dario Acosta May 17, 2012 and January 14, 2014 at Greg Anderson: Lisa-marie Mazzucco Ole Akahoshi: Harold Shapiro Amy Yang: Balázs Böröcz WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1830-31 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2020 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. CD 1 CD2 Ezra Laderman Ezra Laderman 1 Decade [7:09] Partita for Solo Bassoon Robert Blocker, piano 1 Con spirito [2:47] 2 Moderato [5:35] 2 Elegy for Solo Bassoon, for Stephen [3:35] 3 Allegro spirito [1:20] Frank Morelli, bassoon 4 Andante [2:49] 5 Vivace-Maestoso-Lamentoso-Cantare [6:05] Interior Landscapes I 6 Moderato [3:07] 3 Gently [1:58] 7 Allegro [2:40] 4 Allegro [2:59] Frank Morelli, bassoon 5 Andante and Spritely [3:52] 6 Decisively [2:22] Partita for Solo Cello No. 2 7 Andante [0:54] 8 Allegro affettuoso [4:09] Greg Anderson and David Kaplan, piano 9 Moderato [4:00] 10 Allegro con fuoco [3:15] Interior Landscapes II 11 Andantino and flowing [3:11] 8 Moderato [2:02] 12 Vivace [1:49] 9 Spirited (Courante) [1:35] Ole Akahoshi, cello 10 Andante [2:18] 11 Con brio [0:39] Partita for Violin 12 Frenetic [1:49] 13 Moderato [2:21] 13 Not quite lento [4:17] 14 Adagio [2:52] 14 Fast and intense [2:09] 15 Più allegretto [2:09] Greg Anderson and David Kaplan, piano 16 Allegro spirito-Andantino, teneramente [2:55] 17 Mercuriale [2:19] Piano Sonata No. 5 18 Adagio [1:47] 15 Thirteen Short Phrases [6:31] 19 Allegro-Allegretto-Moderato-Adagio [2:18] 16 Andante-Allegro-Andante-Vivace-Prestissimo [13:12] 20 Allegro giocoso [3:02] Amy Yang, piano Benjamin Hoffman, violin Total Time CD 1 = 59:37 Total Time CD 2 = 60:45 The Composer High School of Music and Art, where he was soloist in his own piano concerto with the school’s orchestra. His musical life was interrupted by World War II, serving in the Ezra Laderman (b. June 29 1924 – d. February 28 2015) composed more than 300 US Army April 1943 through April 1946. He trained in the swamps of Mississippi and th works, including many dozens of chamber works, more than 51 orchestral scores served in the European theater as a radio operator with the 69 Infantry Division. The including eight numbered symphonies, over 30 concertos, six dramatic oratorios, seven young musician saw active service in the Battle of the Bulge, was missing in action operas, music for dance, and numerous works for voice, musical theater, television behind enemy lines in the Black Forest, and participated in the liberation of Leipzig, and film. His music incorporated a lyrical style into a contemporary context, using Germany. After the Germans surrendered, Laderman was assigned to guard the home tonal material in combination with atonal, polytonal, or aleatoric elements, while seek- and piano of a German atomic scientist. At this piano, the 20 year old GI wrote the ing out unusual formal structures for his music. He wrote many of his later scores in score for a four-movement orchestral work, the Leipzig Symphony, in honor and Woods Hole, Massachusetts, often surrounded by his three children and their families. memory of those lost in the recent battle. Wearing his US Army uniform, he conducted This album contains the first recordings of Laderman’s music composed between the newly reconstituted Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra before Allied audiences in Metz 2002 and 2013. His commissions include works for the New York Philharmonic, and Wiesbaden. In later years, he was amused to recall that he thought he did not need New York City Opera, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philadelphia a translator for rehearsal with the musicians. He had not realized that he spoke to them Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, orchestras of Minnesota, Dallas, Houston, Detroit, in a language related to, but not quite, German: the Yiddish of Laderman’s immigrant and New Haven, as well as for many world-renowned quartets, chamber ensembles parents. A translator was hurriedly recruited. and soloists. He composed scores for the Academy Award-winning films The Eleanor Returning to civilian life, he entered college with the help of the GI bill, earning Roosevelt Story and The Black Fox; his opera Marilyn premiered at New York City a Bachelor of Arts from Brooklyn College while studying privately with avant-garde Opera in 1993. He collaborated with talented lyricists and librettists, including Joe composer Stephan Wolpe. He studied with Otto Luening and Douglas Moore at Darion, Gerald Green, Daniel Hoffman, Ernest Kinoy, Joseph Wood Krutch, Archibald Columbia University, earning a Master of Arts in 1952. MacLeish, Robert Pinsky, Norman Rosten, and Clair Roskam. In addition to his prodigious creative output, Laderman found time and energy for Among his many honors, Laderman was awarded three Guggenheim fellow- many public service, administrative and academic roles. He directed Yale University’s ships and the Rome Prize, and was invited to residencies at the Bennington Composers School of Music as Dean from 1989 to 1995. Under his leadership, the School and Conference, the American Academy in Rome, the Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio, its threatened opera program were restored to their treasured high status, the Artist the Israel Philharmonic and numerous universities and festivals. Diploma was added to the School’s degree programs, and he initiated valuable Born in Brooklyn New York, Laderman began improvising at the piano at age training programs for conductors and string quartets. He also laid the groundwork four and just a few years later began to compose music. He attended New York City’s for the tuition-free policy that was instituted after his tenure as Dean. He then taught composition at Yale as Professor of Music until his retirement in 2014, when he was Elegy for Solo Bassoon, for Stephen named Professor Emeritus. Ezra wrote Elegy for Solo Bassoon, for Stephen in October 2002 after hearing news Over the years, he served as Chairman for the Composer-Librettist Program of Stephen Maxym’s passing. It was not written with the intention of being heard in of the National Endowment for the Arts, President of the American Music Center, public performance. Ezra sent the Elegy to Stephen’s widow, Lucy Maxym, as a private Director of the Music Program of the National Endowment for the Arts, President of expression of his deeply felt emotions over his friend’s death. When devoted students of the National Music Council, and board chair of the American Composers Orchestra. Stephen Maxym learned of the piece’s existence and wished to perform it in memory of In 2007, Laderman’s public-service career was capped by his election as President their dear teacher’s passing, Ezra agreed, pending Lucy Maxym’s permission. This of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. is the first recording of the work. — Frank Morelli Laderman’s extensive discography includes orchestral music recorded for the New World, CRI, Desto, and First Editions labels; and chamber music and solo scores Interior Landscapes I, Interior Landscapes II for Albany, Connoisseur, and RCA Victor. His music is published by Oxford, Presser, Interior Landscapes I premiered April 2006 at Steinway Hall in New York. Interior Regaldi and G. Schirmer. Albany Records released a nine-volume set The Music of Landscapes II premiered November 2007 at Yale University and was performed again Ezra Laderman, focusing on his chamber output over many years. at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall, March 2008. The music of Ezra Laderman combines a personal and original language with an The Music evocation of our time. It is contemporary in style yet accessible; its musical architecture is solid and its logic rewarding to follow. But perhaps most striking are its long, lyric Decade lines often constructed with wide intervals, expressive and with a beautiful, unusual This single movement piece was composed for Robert Blocker, whose 10 year tenure shape, unfolding over an expansive register. as Dean had come to an end with the announcement of his departure in 2005. I never The two works entitled Interior Landscapes are an exploration of the rich, dense thought that I would hear its premier at Yale, but he returned as Dean in 2006. The texture and colors provided by two pianos – mysterious and sparkling, incisive and work is structured in 10 separate but connected sections.

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