Barber: Solo Piano Music

Daniel P

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Cat No: 8550992

Release Date: 01 January 2000

Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics

Packaging Type: Jewel Case

No of Units: 1

Barcode: 730099599221

Genres: Classical

Composer/Series: Barber

Description
The Composer: Samuel Barber was born Pennsylvania, in 1910, his father a physician and his mother the sister of the famous American contralto, Louise Homer. From the age of six Samuel displayed prodigious musical gifts, and at the age of thirteen he was accepted by the newly established Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Though he studied composition, the piano dominated his studies until he was eighteen. His gifts as a composer were publically acknowledged in 1933 with the first performance of his Overture to The School for Scandal. Though he received several important awards, it was to be another five years before that early success was eventually confirmed, when Arturo Toscanini conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra in his Essay for Orchestra No.1 and Adagio for Strings. It was the Adagio that became one of the most popular American works of serious music, though the composer hardly intended it to be used for the rather sombre circumstances of American state funerals. During World War II, Barber served in the Army Air Corps and received a commission from the Air Force for his Second Symphony.He wrote three operas, Vanessa, A Hand of Bridge, and Antony and Cleopatra; two ballets, Medea and Souvenirs; three Essays for orchestra, two symphonies, concertos each for violin, piano and cello, chamber music, works for piano, as well as choral compositions.In the main his music was melodic with a keen sense of sound colours, and there was a conservatism to his music that allowed audiences easy access to his music. Towards the end of his life there was a growing intensity, strength and a modernity in his writing. He died in January 1981 in New York after ill health had involved a series of periods in hospital. The Music: Though one of the most highly regarded American composers of this century, a number of works still await publication, including nine for piano. The present disc contains all of the published works, and amount to just seven scores. The earliest are the Three Sketches (1923-24). They are light salon pieces in a very romantic genre, the first piece is called Love Song, a short nostalgic waltz dedicated to Barber's mother. The second piece, To My Steinway, is a sweet waltz-like adagio written in honour of his prized childhood instrument. The last piece, Minuet, is of infinite charm and based on Beethoven's Minuet No.2. Chronologically, the next work is the Interlude No.1, composed in 1931, its brooding atmosphere now moving a long way from those early cameos.Although Vladimir Horowitz is accredited as having given the first performance of the Four Excursions, in fact he played just three of the pieces. The work was begun in 1942 and completed in 1944. With public anticipation surrounding the work, Barber gave the first, third and fourth Excursions to Horowitz, who played them on 4th January 1945. It was left to Jeanne Behrend to become the first pianist to play the complete set in December 1948. Characterised by catchy and unusual rh
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