Mode 262 Mikhashoff Book 9 10/21/13 11:10 PM Page 2

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Charles IVES (1874-1954) Ernest BLOCH (1880-1959) Ernst KRENEK (1900-91) Morton GOULD (1913-96) 1. Piano Sonata No. 2,“Concord, Mass., 1840-60” (1911-15) 16. Poems of the Sea – II. Chanty (1922) 3:59 1. Twelve Short Piano Pieces, Op. 83 – 12. Prelude & Toccata – Prelude (1945) 2:26 – III. The Alcotts 7:08 G. Schirmer FIRST RECORDING VI. A Boat Slowly Sailing (1938) 2:43 Mills Music G. Schirmer Leo ORNSTEIN (1893-2002) George GERSHWIN (1898-1937) John CAGE (1912-92) 2. Suicide in an Airplane (c. 1916) 4:42 17. Impromptu in Two Keys (1924) 1:15 Otto LUENING (1900-96) 13. In a Landscape (1948) 9:06 Poon Hill Press New World Music Corp. 2. Six Preludes – Prelude No. 4 (1938-51) 2:15 Henmar Press / C. F. Peters G. Schirmer Charles Tomlinson GRIFFES (1884-1920) Edward Elzear “Zez” CONFREY (1895-1971) George ANTHEIL (1900-59) Three Preludes (1919) 7:30 18. Nickel in the Slot (1923) 2:36 Roger SESSIONS (1896-1985) Valentine Waltzes (1949) 7:15 3. I. 2:21 Alfred Music 3. From My Diary, No. 3 (1938) 2:06 14. I. 2:28 4. II. 1:59 Theodore Presser 15. II. 2:03 5. III. 3:10 Dane RUDHYAR (1895-1985) 16. III. 2:44 C. F. Peters 19. Third Pentagram (Release) – IV.Stars (1926) 3:56 Virgil THOMSON (1896-1989) G. Schirmer Columbia University Music Press 4. Souvenir: Portrait of Paul Bowles (1935) 0:58 Percy GRAINGER (1882-1961) Mercury Music FIRST RECORDING Virgil THOMSON (1896-1989) 6. In a Nutshell – III. Pastorale (1916) 11:47 Wallingford RIEGGER (1885-1961) 17. For a Happy Occasion (1951) 0:19 20. Blue Voyage, Op. 6 (1927) 8:16 Aaron COPLAND (1900-90) C. F. Peters Aaron COPLAND (1900-90) G. Schirmer 5. The Resting Place on the Hill, from Our Town (1940) 5:04 Three Sonnets (1918-19) 7:54 Boosey & Hawkes Earle BROWN (1926-2002) 7. I. 1:55 FIRST RECORDING Henry BRANT (1913-2008) 18. Three Pieces – No. 2 (1951) 1:45 8. II. 2:30 21. Music for a Five and Dime (1932) 2:56 Leonard BERNSTEIN (1918-90) Schott 9. III. 3:29 FIRST RECORDING G. Schirmer Seven Anniversaries (1943, rev. 1954) 2:30 Carl Fisher 6. I. For Aaron Copland 1:44 Mel POWELL (1923-1998) Ruth CRAWFORD SEEGER (1901-53) 7. VII. For William Schuman 0:46 19. Etude (1957) 2:21 Henry COWELL (1897-1965) 22. Nine Preludes – No. 6 (1924-28) 3:17 Boosey & Hawkes Lawson-Gould Music Publishers 10. Amiable Conversation (1917) 1:02 Merion Music Carl RUGGLES (1876-1971) La Monte YOUNG (b. 1935) Igor STRAVINSKY (1882-1971) Paul BOWLES (1910-99) Evocations (1934-43, rev. 1954) 10:55 20. Study No. 2 (1959) 0:46 FIRST RECORDING 11. Valse pour les petits lecteurs du Figaro (1917) 1:04 23. Sonatina Fragmentaria (1933) 4:52 8. I. 2:13 21. Sarabande (1959, rev. 1980) 3:14 unpublished, from manuscript FIRST RECORDING 9. II. 4:17 FIRST RECORDING FOR PIANO George ANTHEIL (1900-59) Conlon NANCARROW (1912-97) 10. I V. 4:25 self published Sonata: Death of Machines (1922) 2:03 Theodore Presser 12. I. 0:27 24. Prelude & Blues – Blues (c. 1935) 2:32 Peggy GLANVILLE-HICKS (1912-90) 13. II. 0:34 Smith Publications Roy HARRIS (1898-1979) 22. Prelude for a Pensive Pupil (1958) 3:02 14. III. 0:25 John CAGE (1912-92) 11. American Ballads – I. Streets of Laredo (1946) 2:26 Lawson-Gould Music Publishers 15. IV. 0:47 25. Quest (1935) 1:10 Carl Fischer G. Schirmer Henmar Press / C. F. Peters1 2 4 5 mode 262_Mikhashoff_book_9 10/21/13 11:10 PM Page 6

Morton FELDMAN (1926-87) John CAGE (1912-92) Philip GLASS (b. 1937) Alvin SINGLETON (b. 1940) 1. Vertical Thoughts 4 (1963) 3:36 10. 49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs (1977) – 1. Opening (1981) 5:21 10. Changing Faces (1970/1987) 1:56 C. F. Peters 1st realization 0:17 Dunvagen Music Publishers Schott Helicon Music FIRST RECORDING 11. 49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs (1977) – Lukas FOSS Alan HOVHANESS (1911-2000) 2nd realization 1:13 (1922-2009) Lou HARRISON (1917-2003) 2. Five Visionary Landscapes Op. 214 (1965) 10:39 Henmar Press / C. F. Peters Solo (1981) 13:04 11 . A Summerfield Set – I. Sonata (1988) 5:18 2. I. 4:34 Pembroke Music Co. Frog Peak Music 3. II. 2:31 Tom CONSTANTEN (b. 1944) Alvin CURRAN 4. III. Evening Bell 3:34 12. Dejavalse (1977) 2:57 (b. 1938) Conlon NANCARROW (1912-97) 3. C. F. Peters Henmar Press / C. F. Peters For Cornelius (1982) 13:47 Three Two-Part Studies (c. 1935, premiered by Frog Peak Music Yvar Mikhashoff in 1991) 3:29 Frank ZAPPA (1940-93) Robert MORAN (b. 1937) 12. I. 1:04 John CAGE 5. Piano Introduction to “Little House I Used to Live In” 13. Valse “In Memoriam Maurice Ravel” (1976) 1:56 (1912-92) 13. II. 1:29 4. (1970) 3:15 C. F. Peters Souvenir (1983) 7:03 14. III. 0:51 Frank Zappa Music Inc. Henmar Press / C. F. Peters C. F. Peters Philip GLASS (b. 1937) FIRST RECORDING FOR PIANO Mario DAVIDOVSKY (b. 1934) 14. Modern Love Waltz (1977) 2:51 Nils VIGELAND 6. Synchronisms No. 6 for piano & tape (1970) 7:19 C. F. Peters (b. 1950) Edward B. Marks Music 5. Nocturne:The Sensualist, Dying, Recalls His Protestant Frederic RZEWSKI (b. 1938) Youth (1987) 3:13 George CRUMB (b. 1929) 15. Four Piano Pieces – No. 4 (1977) 9:29 self published 7. Makrokosmos,Vol. 2 – VII.Tora! Tora! Tora! Zen-On Music (Cadenza Apocalittica) (Scorpio) (1973) 2:23 Stephen PAULUS (b. 1949) C. F. Peters Christian WOLFF (b. 1934) 6. Dance (1987) 2:03 16. Prelude No. 5 (1981) 4:15 Schott Helicon Music Lou HARRISON (1917-2003) C. F. Peters 8. A Waltz for Evelyn Hinrichsen (1977) 2:28 Kamran INCE (b. 1960) C. F. Peters James SELLARS (b. 1943) 7. My Friend Mozart (1987) 4:11 Nocturnes (1981) 10:18 Schott Helicon Music Joan TOWER (b. 1938) 17. I. Spanish Dreams 4:17 Joseph SCHWANTNER 9. Red Garnet Waltz (1977) 3:27 18. II. French Dreams 2:14 (b. 1943) 8. C. F. Peters 19. III.American Dreams 3:47 Veiled Autumn (Kindertodeslied) (1987) 4:20 Hog River Music Schott Helicon Music Otto LUENING Ross Lee FINNEY (1906-97) (1900-96) 9. 20. Youth’s Companion – V.Riddle Song (1981) 2:55 Song Without Words (1987) 2:58 C. F.Peters FIRST RECORDING American Composers Alliance 43 6 7 mode 262_Mikhashoff_book_9 10/21/13 11:10 PM Page 8

Yvar Mikhashoff, Panorama of American Piano Music, 1911 – 1990

he unique sensibility of the pianist and musi- the 1980s as well as editing and arranging the music T cal polymath Yvar Mikhashoff (1941-1993) of Henry Cowell, Conlon Nancarrow, and others. permeates this collection. These discs feature By the time he earned his master’s degree in music ranging from Antheil to Zappa, and capture 1968, Mackay was performing under his grandfather’s many of the most important trends in the rich history name, Mikhashoff. Although it might seem unexpect- of American piano music in the twentieth century. ed for a performer who adopted an “exotic” name to This musical panorama runs the gamut from shorter specialize in American music, it was an apt choice works meant for the pleasure of the amateur pianist in retrospect given Mikhashoff’s cosmopolitanism. to virtuosic works of the highest order. It gives the lis- After studying with Nadia Boulanger in Paris on a tener a sense of the remarkable diversity of writing for Fulbright, Mikhashoff completed his doctoral work the piano in this country over the last hundred years at University of Texas at Austin and built a career of as well as amply demonstrating the depth and versa- international visibility from his home base in Buffalo, tility of Mikhashoff’s own musical thinking. NY, where he was a professor and artist-in-residence Mikhashoff cultivated a multifaceted musical at the University at Buffalo from 1973 until his death persona from an early age. Born as Ronald Mackay in 1993. He arrived the same year that Morton in Troy, NY, his unusual talent was recognized while Feldman was appointed Edgar Varèse Professor of he was a teenager. One article from the Schenectady Music, and Buffalo’s vibrant musical culture is indi- Gazette in 1956 made a special note of Mackay’s cated by Mikhashoff’s inclusion of Feldman’s contem- compositions as a feature of a recital he played with plative Vertical Thoughts 4 in this collection. fellow students of Betty Roberge Weir. In his early The extent of Mikhashoff’s globe-trotting musical twenties he studied cello and composition as well life is hinted at by considering the 184 recordings as piano at the Eastman School of Music and later which are held at his archive in the University at continued his piano studies at the Juilliard School of Buffalo library. These tapes capture his concerts Music and the University of Houston. His life away throughout Europe and the United States and illus- from the keyboard often informed his activities at the trate how his approach to programming became With Conlon Nancarrow in Nancarrow’s home piano bench. His lifelong fascination with the tango increasingly ambitious and encyclopedic over the Photo ©Keith Gemerek can be seen as an outgrowth of the few years he course of his career. In 1976 he began a series at spent working as a ballroom dancer, and he was also Buffalo titled “The Contemporary Piano Concert,” active behind the scenes throughout his career, serv- which presented composers ranging from Ives to ing as Associate Director of the Almeida Festival in Webern to Scriabin. By 1981, he was organizing 8 9 mode 262_Mikhashoff_book_9 10/21/13 11:10 PM Page 10

increasingly thematically oriented concerts, such as ing over the course of four concerts. the “Jazzy 20s” program from July of that year, which The present recording is an outgrowth of this featured Copland, Stravinsky, Antheil and Krenek. approach to recital programming. Although presented His long-running tango project, in which he commis- here chronologically (as the 1984 concert was), the sioned some 127 tangos by contemporary composers, thematic interconnections among these works are also gives an impression of his penchant for expan- where Mikhashoff’s skill as a curator comes to the sive musical projects which focused around a clear fore. Mikhashoff was not content to review more conceptual core. well-known repertoire by these composers: where In 1982 Mikhashoff hit upon the approach which we might expect Copland’s Variations we get instead would eventually lead to this Panorama. That sum- his Sonnets and The Resting Place on the Hill; where mer, he performed a gargantuan program of exclu- a more predictable choice to represent Gershwin sively American piano music at the Holland Festival would have been the Three Preludes, instead in more or less chronological order, with some of the Mikhashoff chose the less well known Impromptu works featured here: Ives’s “Alcotts” movement from in Two Keys. Such choices keep the Panorama from the Concord Sonata, Antheil’s Death of Machines being a mere survey, instead giving us Mikhashoff’s and two of Leonard Bernstein’s Anniversaries all unique perspective on trends in American piano made an appearance on that recital. The following music from the last one hundred years. We even month Mikhashoff played a New Music America get a sense of how Mikhashoff helped to create parts concert series in Chicago, and in 1984 gave a fully of that repertoire; some of the works included here, formed mega-concert bearing the name “American such as Lukas Foss’s Solo, were commissioned by Piano Marathon: Seventy Works in Seven Hours Mikhashoff himself, and by including them in this from Seventy Years 1914-1984” at Symphony Space set Mikhashoff has enshrined them in his personal in New York City. Tim Page reviewed the concert for pantheon of admiration. the New York Times, describing Mikhashoff’s “spirit- John Cage is the only composer who is featured ed, imaginative, and technically adept pianism, shift- on each disc in the set, and Mikhashoff’s selection of ing effortlessly from esthetic to esthetic.” The concert works by Cage provides a remarkable cross section of was free to the public and they were encouraged to both Cage’s career and a sense of Mikhashoff’s general come and go as they pleased. Mikhashoff organized approach when it came to choosing pieces. These four several other marathon-style concerts in the 1980s, pieces not only span Cage’s life but illuminate different Elliott Carter, Mikhashoff, Michael McCandless, Henry Brant including a tango marathon at the Almeida Festival in facets of his compositional output. Perhaps surprising- London in 1985 and another in Toronto in 1987, as ly, two of the works by Cage are only optionally for well as an all-American marathon in 1988 in New piano — In a Landscape can also be played for harp York. The latter project had an even larger scope, solo, and Souvenir, written late in his career, was writ- since it recruited twenty-two other pianists perform- ten for organ but works beautifully as a meditative 10 11 mode 262_Mikhashoff_book_9 10/21/13 11:10 PM Page 12

piano work. The earliest, Quest, was written while feature moments of extraordinary dissonance as well Cage was still in the thrall of his studies with Adolph as ones of exquisitely controlled attacks and releases Weiss and Arnold Schoenberg, and is made up of for the piano. The composer Elliott Carter once sin- spiky dissonances and an angular, spare texture. In a gled out the Evocations as one of the signal works in Landscape uses Cage’s “square root” method of orga- the repertoire of American piano music, writing that nizing the time into fifteen statements of fifteen bars he didn’t “remember any other pieces that show off each. Its spare, modal language anticipates the mini- the gradual dying away of chords and the conflict of malist movement by some twenty years. The excerpt beat notes that constantly redefines itself as moments from 49 Waltzes is comically short, virtually an apho- elapse so well.” rism like other works in the Panorama such as Virgil The hulking stature of Ives and Ruggles in the Thomson’s For a Happy Occasion and La Monte history of American composition revolves in part Young’s Study No. 2. around their status as “authentically” American com- Other American originals are well represented posers, ones who neither traveled extensively nor on this collection. Charles Ives, Leo Ornstein, George studied outside of the United States. But Ornstein was Antheil, and Carl Ruggles were among the leading born in what is now the Ukraine, and Antheil built a American composers who wrote music which paral- significant part of his career in France and Germany leled the upheaval occurring in European composi- during the 1920s. These quirks of biography point to tion during the first three decades of the twentieth another important aspect of Mikhashoff’s Panorama: century. In this set, we have the third movement the way in which it traces composers who lived and from Ives’s Concord Sonata, which is perhaps the worked all over the world. At least one composer in most accessible movement of the four that make up the Panorama, Igor Stravinsky, is hardly considered the whole work. “The Alcotts” develops one of the “American” despite the fact that he did live in the central themes of the entire sonata, first as a quiet United States for the last thirty-one years of his life. hymn at the beginning of the movement, and then as But other composers featured on this collection a rhapsodic climax (not only for the movement, but defy simple national classification as well: Joan Tower for the whole sonata) at the end. Ornstein’s Suicide was raised in Bolivia; Alan Hovhaness, while born in in an Airplane — a remarkable enough title for a work Watertown, Massachusetts, wrote music which has written in 1912 — features thick handfuls of chords often been interpreted in terms of his Armenian in kaleidoscopic tremolos which manage to evoke ancestry; the Argentinian-born Mario Davidovsky both the dull roar of a propeller as well as the grim didn’t come to the United States until he was almost With Aaron Copland topic of the title. Antheil’s Sonata: Death of Machines twenty-two. Kamran Ince grew up in Turkey, and is a compact four movement sonata (packed into two Henry Brant and Ernest Bloch were both transplants minutes), which plays its awkwardly robotic melodies (from Canada and Switzerland, respectively). This without apology. Ruggles’s Evocations, by contrast, question of composers’ backgrounds goes beyond 12 13 mode 262_Mikhashoff_book_9 10/21/13 11:10 PM Page 14

considering where their passports came from. It indi- 1977, is structured around a languid, nostalgic cates Mikhashoff’s understanding of the porous bor- returning theme, with lyrical excursions that present ders of the very idea of “American” music and his new tunes. embrace of the diverse origins of this country’s musi- Mikhashoff’s selections tend to be brief, allowing cal repertoire. for the inclusion of more pieces by different com- Although the bulk of the music in the Panorama posers. Only six pieces are longer than ten minutes, can be situated rather comfortably within the concert and most are shorter than five. Such concision allows tradition of American music, Mikhashoff also in- the listener to sample broadly, and is one way that cludes a number of pieces which point to the broad Mikhashoff’s recording provides an analogous experi- range of more popular styles heard in America during ence to the live concerts where listeners were free to the twentieth century. Edward Elzear “Zez” Confrey come and go. Moreover, many of these shorter works was one of the most well-known composers of so- embrace genres that have a long history, contributing called “novelty” piano music in the 1920s, an further to their accessibility. Over the course of the increasingly harmonically and rhythmically compli- set, we encounter several preludes, a sonata, a cated style which traced its roots to ragtime. In sonatina, a number of etudes (sometimes called by Confrey’s piece Nickel in the Slot, on the first disc, their English name of “studies”), as well as two noc- we hear the hallmarks of the novelty style, with a turnes and a suite of waltzes. But the preponderance left hand bass moving in a smoothly alternating stride of existing genres serves as a counterweight to the pattern against a heavily syncopated and often har- avant-garde holdings of the collection, and indicate monically surprising right hand. Mel Powell, although a sensibility that also seeks to highlight the continuity known as a jazz pianist and an arranger for Benny of American practice with European genres. Goodman, is featured here with his Etude from Conlon Nancarrow appears on both the first and 1957, a thorny and dissonant work which reflected last discs in the set, a consequence of his long life a change in the composer’s priorities following his and the fact that a number of his works were redis- study at Yale in the late 40s and early 50s. George covered long after they were written. His presence in Gershwin’s ability to straddle the popular / concert the Panorama also points to Mikhashoff’s broader fas- divide is one of the most important aspects of his cination with Nancarrow, evidenced by the chamber career, and Frank Zappa’s irreducible hybridity is ensemble arrangements he prepared of what were similarly central to his output. Tom Constanten’s perhaps Nancarrow’s most famous works, his Studies Dejavalse highlights the work of another composer for Player Piano. Mikhashoff also edited Nancarrow’s with a strikingly boundary crossing career. music, preparing a version of Nancarrow’s Sonatina With John Cage Constanten played keyboard with the Grateful Dead and making an arrangement of the same work for from 1968 to 1970, before going on to receive his piano four-hands. On the Panorama, however, Ph.D. in composition from Harvard. This waltz, from Mikhashoff showcases Nancarrow’s jazz-inflected 14 15 mode 262_Mikhashoff_book_9 10/21/13 11:10 PM Page 16

music with his Blues before turning to the tight rhyth- were known in the 1930s and 1940s for writing mic and tonal constructions in the Two-Part Studies, music of a spare and utterly straightforward aesthetic. which Mikhashoff himself premiered in Cologne in Bowles’s Sonatina Fragmentaria on the first disc is a 1991, more than 50 years after they were written. good example of his concise, jazz-influenced style, Although Nancarrow worked in obscurity for much packing three movements into a scant four and a half of his career, Mikashoff’s work on the composer’s minutes. On the second disc, they are both represent- behalf was an important advocate in the growth of ed by “Portraits”, of which Thomson composed more Nancarrow’s reputation over the course of the last than 150 in his lifetime. They were all composed in thirty years. a way similar to the approach a painter might take Given the experimental thrust of so many of to create a visual likeness: with the subject sitting in the composers featured here, it is worth noting that front of Thomson, in silence. Thomson executed his Mikhashoff keeps his hands firmly on the keyboard portraits in a single session, and we hear the resultant for most of the Panorama. Although some of the most spontaneity clearly in Thomson’s Portrait of Paul famous works of American modernist piano music Bowles, from 1940. This work features rapidly alter- featured so-called “extended techniques”— such as nating phrase groups, and moments of sliding Henry Cowell’s strumming inside the piano in The bitonality, all held together with a rhythmic texture Banshee, or John Cage’s insertion of various objects and language which might make it seem like a dis- between the strings in his works for prepared piano torted classical character piece. — in the Panorama we come across such unfamiliar The Waltz Collection, also on the third disc, sounds in only a few places. Mario Davidovsky’s was one outgrowth of Mikhashoff’s ongoing interest Synchronisms No. 6 is played throughout with a in dance and is a remarkable snapshot of contempo- tape accompaniment, although Davidovsky explains rary composition in the late 1970s. These are new in his program note that “the electronic segment recordings of Mikhashoff’s contribution to “The Waltz should perhaps not be viewed as an independent Project,” issued by Nonesuch Records in 1981, in polyphonic line, but rather as if it were inlaid into which 17 waltzes by living composers were per- the piano part.” Immediately following Davidovsky’s formed by Mikhashoff, Robert Moran, John Cobb, Synchronism is a selection from George Crumb’s and Alan Feinberg. Their contours are as distinctive as Makrokosmos, a work which uses amplified piano the composers who wrote them. Lou Harrison’s Waltz and requires the pianist to employ numerous tech- for Evelyn Hinrichsen is a brooding lilt in A minor. niques of plucking and manipulating the instrument’s Joan Tower’s Red Garnet Waltz never locks into a strings directly. clear triple meter, instead rhapsodically expanding With Frederic Rzewski at The Almeida Festival Mikhashoff was also strongly attracted to the around its own thick harmonic language. John Cage’s Photo ©Sarah Ainslie plainer, more homespun evocations in American 49 Waltzes for the Five Boroughs was a visual score music. Paul Bowles and Virgil Thomson, for example, at first, a commission from the magazine Rolling 16 17 mode 262_Mikhashoff_book_9 10/21/13 11:10 PM Page 18

Stone to celebrate the relocation of its offices. In its nates between a slow melody and hazy blocks of original version, 49 Waltzes referred to the grouping chords which alternate between the two hands, lend- of 147 addresses into 49 “waltzes” which were ing the work a disjointed character despite its com- intended to be visited either for listening, performing, pact proportions. The high water mark for this juxta- or making a recording. Cage later composed a piano position of minimalism with other styles in the realization of the work, which Mikhashoff plays from Panorama is almost certainly in Frederic Rzewski’s here. Robert Moran’s Waltz “in Memoriam Maurice unapologetically repetitive Piano Piece No. 4. This Ravel” evokes the dreamy harmonic palette of the work, which begins on a single high note, and then French composer in a readily digestible slow dance. moves into the lowest registers in the introduction, Philip Glass’s Modern Love Waltz is a distillation of creates a meditative haze which Mikhashoff draws his spare but expansive language into three short the listener into. Among the “classic” minimalists, minutes, but stops short of a complete embrace of La Monte Young is surprisingly represented here by minimalism for which Glass is so well known. To his Sarabande (a work which idiosyncratically revisits hear Glass in full minimalist garb we have to wait the baroque dance genre), and the wildly brash and for Opening, the first track on the fourth disc, with succinct Study No. 2. Of course, given the scope of its understated and undulating triadic harmonic lan- Young’s most well-known minimalist work for piano, guage distributed against tricky cross rhythms (where The Well-Tuned Piano (lasting several hours in perfor- the left hand plays two notes in the same amount of mance and requiring a specially-tuned instrument), time that the right hand plays three). such choices are eminently sensible if Mikhashoff Minimalism is one of the strongest currents in wanted to include Young at all. American music of the late twentieth century, casting The recording sessions themselves took place in its shadow even on composers who would deny its the final year of Mikhashoff’s life at Slee Hall on the influence. For example, Foss explains in the program campus of the University at Buffalo. Mikhashoff fund- note to Solo that it is neither truly serial nor minimal- ed the recordings himself, and they were remem- ist, since “in spite of an insistent repetitive element, bered as a focused and urgent affair. Luk Vaes, one … each repetition is also a change implying develop- of Mikhashoff’s students who worked as a factotum ment, growth, and forward movement.” Similarly, for the recording sessions, recalled that Mikhashoff Alvin Curran’s work For Cornelius embraces a striking was increasingly ill, at one point dozing off in the two-part structure. The first section is a slow, lyrical car as Vaes drove him to the hall for the recording. lament, repeated three times, which gives way to a Mikhashoff moved rapidly through the pieces, most With Lukas Foss second section which features hypnotically alternat- of which he had performed many times before, often Photo ©Irene Haupt ing chords which gradually morph from one to the deciding as soon as a take was over whether or not it next. Kamran Ince’s My Friend Mozart pursues a simi- needed review. With only four people in the room, lar strategy in a more compact form. This piece alter- the setting was extremely intimate, and Vaes recalled 18 19 mode 262_Mikhashoff_book_9 10/21/13 11:10 PM Page 20

that Mikhashoff sought to keep that proximity to his ohn Cage invited me to join him and to listeners present in the recording itself, seeking “a Jrecord the premiere of his Europera 5 in sound as from a salon with lots of carpets, and a Buffalo in 1991. Yvar Mikhashoff commis- Bechstein-type piano: cozy, warm, woolly.” sioned the work, and it was there that I really Today, Mikhashoff’s legacy reaches far into the came to know him. nooks and crannies of contemporary music practice. Yvar was a “larger than life” person — both his Some of his students and friends have followed his personality and physically (a large man with very lead and developed ambitious, curated, and commis- large hands). He had incredible, large ideas, and we sioned projects. His student Haydée Schvartz has hit it off. He would talk about his concepts for pro- given all-tango recitals featuring and honoring some grams and recordings, inclusionary and very com- of the works that Mikhashoff had commissioned dur- plete programs. As a record collector and completist ing his lifetime as well as commissioning new tangos myself, this appealed to me. Kindred spirits. by Argentine composers. Anthony de Mare, a friend For the premiere of Europera 5, Yvar used virtu- and former student of Mikhashoff’s, has commis- oso piano transcriptions of operas by Liszt and others. sioned 36 different contemporary composers to But ultimately he wanted to use his own virtuoso prepare piano arrangements of songs by Stephen opera transcriptions in future performances. And he Sondheim as part of his Liaisons project. Mikhashoff’s suggested that we make a recording of his transcrip- recorded legacy lives on, not only in this set, but in tions, ranging from Verdi and Bellini to Berg and the posthumously released recording of Europera 5 Volans. (1994), a work he commissioned from John Cage, as So plans were made to return to Buffalo to make well as a two disc set of opera transcriptions issued a recording of the Transcriptions and the Panorama. in 2006. Taken as a whole, this set celebrates the I (happily) had no idea what I was getting myself into. remarkable life’s work of a musician who refused What was to be a single CD quickly grew. Yvar classifications, and whose omnivorous, cosmopolitan, would arrive at the session with a huge portfolio con- and epic sensibility is demonstrated amply across taining his scores under his arm. Problem is, it con- these four discs. tained not only the scores for the scheduled record- — Drew Massey ing but also many others as well! During breaks, Yvar would show me scores, often seated at the piano: “Brian, do you know this piece?”, and he would sight read the score for me. He was a remarkable sight reader. Of course, most of these “suggestions” just With Virgil Thomson, being filmed by Lawrence Brose at Thomson’s apartment had to be included in the recording. We were like at the Chelsea Hotel, New York City. Photo ©Keith Gemerek kids in a candy store. And so the Panorama grew to four very conceptually sound CDs. 20 21 mode 262_Mikhashoff_book_9 10/21/13 11:10 PM Page 22

Working intensely on the Panorama collection the time that I was preserving a great pianist’s legacy. again — after all of these years, to prepare it for Haydée recalls, for instance, that “…during release — I am astounded at the quality of the music the loud “Tora! Tora! Tora!” movement of Crumb’s in the program, and the breadth and variety from the Makrokosmos, Yvar played it two or three times non- composers represented as Yvar curated it. Virtually stop, in such a fortissimo and energetic way that the every American composer of note (and some not) is piano was “trembling” afterwards… literally! He left represented in this recording. I recall that some, John the piano completlely out of tune, and Gary Snipe Adams for instance, were omitted at the recording (the piano tuner) had to come to tune it.” And further: session because of the length of their works or simply “I do remember that Yvar would NEVER stop playing. lack of time to record them. Once we arrived and he sat on the piano, he kept on But the Panorama was not all. Yvar had other playing and playing. When not recording, he would suggestions: “how about a CD of Feldman, of play Chopin Studies, or Liszt works. He was really, Thomson, of Tangos...?” And another fascination like, possessed!!!” of his, the Melodrama, works of which he had per- These were still early days of recording for me. formed with his friend and colleague, the actor Paul I had a “purist” concept of recording then, utilizing Schmidt — which led to potentially three discs worth 2 to 4 microphones, mixed direct to stereo and onto of Melodramas, one each of Richard Strauss, Liszt DAT tape (including live mixing Davidovsky’s tape and assorted composers from Beethoven and Mozart part). DAT, that era’s miracle digital recording solu- to present day. All of these were recorded. tion, was not all it was proposed to be. The DAT Of these, sadly the only Transcriptions and medium proved to be very unstable, and over time Strauss Melodramas, along with a disc of Alvin the tapes are prone to drop outs and developing all Curran (which I did not personally record), and, sorts of digital noise. Yvar worked quickly, sometimes of course Europera 5, have been released thus far. recording only one or two takes of a particular piece The Buffalo recording sessions were heady, or section. These were often not sessions of meticu- marathon affairs. We often had the concert hall at lous exactitude, going after every note perfect. If he Buffalo for the entire day(s), so we would record and Haydée or Luk thought it good, we moved on. endlessly. There was no clock to watch. Yvar always And so, some pieces are now lost to the unstable seemed to have the energy, fueled by occasional DAT medium, impossible to resurrect from the digital With Otto Luening breaks for “Le Roi Burger,” as he like to refer to his noise. Or, we had to choose less perfect takes over Photo ©Irene Haupt preferred snack, to plow on. Luckily, I was surround- the damaged better takes in order to salvage a work ed by willing participants — my engineer David for inclusion on this record. Even so, some digital Avidor, and Yvar’s enlisted students Haydée Schvartz artifacts may still be heard on these CDs. I trust the and Luk Vaes (who produced the sessions) — all were music makes these blemishes worthwhile. willing to work the long hours. I had no clear idea at And what of this recorded legacy? Sad to say 22 23 mode 262_Mikhashoff_book_9 10/21/13 11:10 PM Page 24

that these recordings have leaked out slowly over Charles Tomlinson Griffes: the years, for many reasons. Working on this project, Three Preludes (ca. 1917) preparing it to observe the 20th anniversary of Yvar’s After his untimely death, Charles Griffes’ three pre- death, brought back a lot of fond memories. And a ludes were found in sketch form. They were complete reminder of what a wonderful musician Yvar was. I except for all tempo and dynamic marks; any per- have a renewed vigor to work on the other archived formance requires a great deal of fantasy and imagi- recordings. Luckily the material is there. nation from the pianist. I have chosen to play these — Brian Brandt pieces emphasizing their remote and oriental qualities.

The following are Yvar’s texts for the original, Percy Grainger: Pastorale (1916) single-CD concept for Panorama of American Piano Australian-born Percy Grainger became an American Music. Written in Yvar’s inimitable style and even citizen in 1916, the year he wrote his magnificent though incomplete as far as the complete set is con- Pastorale. This extended fantasy on a single rocking cerned, I thought it valuable to include them here: motif of English folk character is a stunning and virtuosic example of the variation form, clearly demon- Charles Ives: “The Alcotts” (1911-15) strating why Grainger was regarded as one of the Charles Ives assembled the four movements that com- greatest pianists of his time. prise his Concord Sonata (Piano Sonata No. 2) in or about 1914-15. Of “The Alcotts,” the third move- Aaron Copland: Three Sonnets (1919-21) ment, Ives has written: “We won’t try to recognize Aaron Copland sent me copies of his Three Sonnets the music sketch of the Alcotts with much besides the in 1977 when he was in Buffalo, as a gift, after he memory of that home under the elms — the Scotch heard my transcriptions of his piano music for string songs and family hymns that were sung at the end of quartet, American Landscapes. The Three Sonnets, each day… And there sits the little old spinet-piano from the period before he left America to study in Sophia Thoreau gave to the Alcott children on which Paris, show that he was already clearly under the Beth played the old Scotch airs, and played at the French thrall. With Nils Vigeland Fifth Symphony… All around you, under the Concord sky, there still floats the influence of that human faith Igor Stravinsky: Valse pour les petits melody… a tune the Concord bards are ever playing, lecteurs du Figaro (1922) while they pound away at the immensities with a The inclusion of this micro-waltz is a bit of a conceit Beethovenlike sublimity. as Stravinsky did not visit the United States until 1925. It originally appeared in Le Figaro newspaper on May 22, 1922 and would have been seen by 24 25 mode 262_Mikhashoff_book_9 10/21/13 11:10 PM Page 26

many of the new young generation of American com- “Zez” Confrey: Nickel in the Slot (1923) author of “Nightwood” and inscribed “To Djuna Produced by: Brian Brandt posers who had just arrived in Paris to study with “Zez” Confrey, composer of Kitten on the Keys and Barnes, my inspiration.” Assistant Producers: Luk Vaes, Haydée Schvartz Nadia Boulanger — Copland and Thomson among Dizzy Fingers was the foremost composer of novelty Engineer: David Avidor them. In this waltz, for children, the left hand part piano solos, a genre extremely popular in the 1920’s Henry Brant: Music for a Five-and-Dime Edited by: Michael Hynes seems to have gotten itself somehow backwards. and 1930’s. This piece, Nickel in the Slot, is a rhyth- (1931) Editing produced by: Samuel Clay Birmaher, mically sophisticated and quirky quasi-rag which Henry Brant has written only one work for solo Sheridan Seyfried, Michael Hynes Postproduction supervision & research: Ernest Bloch: Chanty (1922) might have come out of an old jukebox. piano, his Music for a Five-and-Dime, originally for Samuel Clay Birmaher Swiss-born Ernest Bloch came to the United States in violin, household utensils (knives, rolling pin, glasses, Recorded at: Slee Hall, University at Buffalo, New York in 1916 and made his entire professional career here. Dane Rudhyar: Stars (1926) alarm clocks) and piano. Mr. Brant indicated to me August & November 1991, January 1992 His Chanty (a seaman’s song) is the second move- Astrologer-composer Dane Rudhyar, born in France which lines to play to reconstruct the solo version ment of his Sea Pictures. This piece is nostalgic, and (1895) came to the United States in 1917 and made he often performed. He said about this work that in Art direction: Brian Brandt evocative of his proto-impressionistic style. his life and career here in his twin professions. This those eponymous emporiums, there were often piano Box cover photo: © Steven Maxx work dates from his first productive period as a com- players who would perform the latest hits from the Book cover: cover of 1984 Symphony Space concert flyer Henry Cowell: Amiable Conversation (1917) poser (the other is fifty years later) and is like a beau- sheet music collection available for sale, always in Liner notes: © Drew Massey, Brian Brandt,Yvar Mikhashoff Cowell’s Amiable Conversation is one of his most tifully etched nocturne with flashes of lightning in a a flashy, jazzy, novelty piano style. Mode Records wishes to thank Michael Hynes for his hilarious compositions. Mrs. Cowell told me that it dark summer sky. dedicated work, Samuel Clay Birmaher for his more than Conlon Nancarrow: Blues depicted the composer’s conversation with his (ca. 1936) thorough research and assistance, the ever helpful John Chinese laundryman, neither of whom could under- Wallingford Riegger: Blue Voyage (1929) This piece is the second of two pieces that were Bewley, Amy Williams, Sheridan Seyfried, and The Mikhashoff stand each other. Thus the alternation between mea- Riegger, one of the “American Five” (with Ives, published in New Music Magazine in the mid-1930’s. Trust sures on white keys and measures on black keys. Cowell, Becker and Ruggles) was a composer of No work could be more aptly subtitled cubist, with many faces. This piece is a marvelous example of its sharp-edged ostinato, angular rhythms and This recording funded in part through a grant from the George Antheil: Sonata No. 3 virtuoso post-impressionism, full of grand gestures blocked harmonies. Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc. “The Death of Machines” (1923) and silvery sonorities. The title is from a poem of Also by Yvar Mikhashoff on Mode Records: This work, subtitled The Death of Machines is dated Conrad Aiken. Paul Bowles: Sonatina Fragmentaria (1933) January 23, 1923, Berlin. He called it a micro-sonata, Novelist-composer Paul Bowles effectively gave up John CAGE: Europera 5 (mode 36) and indeed, it has four tiny movements, with a re- Ruth Crawford Seeger: Preludes (1931) musical composition in the sixties when he moved John CAGE Performs Cage: Empty Words with Music for prise of the first at the close. In the tradition of his Ruth Crawford, later Seeger, was one of the most bril- permanently to Tangiers. His Sonatina Fragmentaria Piano — with John Cage, voice (mode 200) role as the “Bad Boy of Music” whose performances liant talents on the American horizon in the 1930’s — exists only in manuscript form. Its three exquisite Alvin CURRAN: Piano Works (mode 49) caused riots and disturbances, this piece is mild pungent music of striking originality and mystery. movements — slow, fast, slow — are ephemeral mood Richard STRAUSS:The Melodramas – Enoch Arden;The indeed. It however contains many of his favored After her marriage she and her husband devoted pictures, ever-shifting, like psychological light plays Castle by the Sea — with Paul Schmidt, voice (mode 78) effects —glissandi, bitonality and Stravinskian themselves to the anthologizing of American folk and are reminiscent of his incidental music for the VIRTUOSO OPERA TRANSCRIPTIONS by Puccini, Bellini, rhythms. songs and ballads. She returned briefly to formal plays of Tennessee Williams. Verdi, Debussy, Berg, Bussotti,Volans (mode 154/55, 2-CDs) composition shortly before her untimely death in —Yvar Mikhashoff 1953. This prelude, one of nine, is dedicated to the 26 27