Alfredo Barili (1854-1935) Track 9                           

Barili descended from an extraordinary musical family. Though born in Italy, he was raised in New York and in 1880 moved to Atlanta where he distinguished himself as the “father of classical music in Atlanta.”  Barili’s Cradle Song was so popular around 1900 that it was listed between Bach and Beethoven in Charles Wilkinson’s book, Well-Known Piano Solos and How to Play Them, the leading piano repertoire book of its day. 

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) Tracks 16, 26           

Brahms composed music which speaks directly to the soul of the listener. He believed that the traditional forms of music were, in themselves, sufficient to convey any emotion. For this reason he wrote “absolute” music and avoided the Romantic period’s programmatic tendencies and descriptive titles. The original title for this composition was Nocturne but subsequently was changed by Brahms to Intermezzo which simply means “between scenes.” Perhaps the former title was too descriptive and Brahms here merely wishes to suggest a state of mind. The Waltzes, Op. 39, completed in 1865, were published as works for two pianos, solo piano and also simplified piano. There are sixteen in all and the Waltz in Ab is number fifteen. It is one of his most well-known and loved waltzes.

Frank Bridge (1879-1941) Tracks 4, 10                      

Frank Bridge is perhaps best known today for being Benjamin Britten’s early guiding force in music. A Fairy Tale, composed in 1917, represents some of Bridge’s most appealing music. Rather than being “children’s pieces,” A Fairy Tale seems to be, instead, a grown-up reminiscence of childhood themes.  The work is a set of four pieces titled, The Princess, The Ogre, The Spell and The Prince. As the titles suggest, the fairy tale musically portrays a princess who is cast under a spell by an ogre and ultimately saved by the prince.  The Princess is a fragrant and delicate little waltz while The Spell’s tranquility is beautifully suspended in our ears.

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849) Track 23                      

Chopin’s music is a staple of the piano repertoire. Known as the “poet of the piano,” Chopin’s music conveys a lyricism and harmonic versatility virtually unmatched by any other Romantic composer.  The Berceuse, composed near the end of his life in 1844, is one of Chopin’s most beautiful and delicate works for piano. It is ingeniously woven around a constantly repeating simple harmonic scheme.

Francois Couperin (1668-1733) Track 27                  

Francois Couperin was a French composer and contemporary of J. S. Bach, whom he greatly admired. He was considered the leading composer during the reign of Louis XIV and his harpsichord music was well-known throughout Europe. In later years, Couperin tended to give his compositions descriptive titles such as Les Barricades Mystérieuses. It is found in Couperin’s 6^th suite for harpsichord. Barricades Mystérieuses gently enacts a sense of striving to overcome invisible obstacles; otherwise, it may refer to the fact that the pianist’s hands never leave one position in this piece:  it is as if there is a barricade and the hand position is fixed.

Claude Debussy (1862-1918) Tracks 2, 19, 24         

Debussy is the quintessential Impressionist composer. His music explores ever evolving shades of sound in a continuously sensuous way. The three compositions on this CD are representative of his serene expressiveness. Written in a hurry in the year 1890, Debussy reportedly felt that Rêverie was a work of no consequence, but nevertheless it has been extremely popular having been often played for its melodic innocence and grace. Even more well-known is the First Arabesque composed in 1888 while Debussy was a student at the Paris Conservatory. It is a brief work that has been described as “delicate as a spider’s web.” Debussy’s two books titled Preludes are consummate examples of Debussy’s ability to evoke moods, memories, and images.  Bruyères from Preludes, Bk. 2, translated means “heather.” It represents true Impressionist style in that the music does not try to describe heather as an object but rather ‘evokes’ a sensual image of heather blowing differentially across a broad landscape.

Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) Track 7

Danza de la moza donosa is the second in a set of three pieces titled Danzas Argentinas. They are early works, composed when Ginastera was just 21 yet they already reveal what was to be a life-long predilection for using native Argentinian folk melodies in combination with modern compositional techniques. This particular work is modeled after a type of European-influenced Argentinian dance known as the musica criolla. The music’s haunting melodies are sublimely supported by an habanera-like rhythmic accompaniment.

Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) Tracks 6, 11, 20

Grieg is probably most widely known for his Piano Concerto in a minor. He is often viewed as a cosmopolitan and sophisticated composer, and yet much of Grieg’s writing is quite nationalistic. Some of the best and most beautiful expressions of this nationalism can be found in his Lyric Pieces, 66 in all, which appeared in 10 opuses between 1867 and 1901.  Within the outlines of traditional small forms, Grieg managed to create a wealth of mood-sketches. The three compositions merely touch on the wealth of music found in the Lyric Pieces. The Nocturne is a brief, evocative sketch of a mind at peace. The Arietta is written in an intimate, tuneful style, as the name suggests. The Cradle Song evokes a feeling of childlike rest.

Jacques Ibert (1890-1962) Tracks 5, 17, 21, 25

Jacques Ibert, a French composer, was for many years, the director of the French Academy in Rome. He was very prolific composing in many mediums including operas and music theatre along with many instrumental works. The Petite Suite is a set of 15 small pieces all with descriptive titles, published in wartime in Switzerland in 1944. Noted for his sensitivity to melody and harmony, Ibert’s piano music often consists of short movements, many with picturesque titles characteristic of a composer who considered music to be the “expression of an interior adventure.” In these pieces, he seems to have modeled his compositional style after Robert Schumann, whom he greatly admired.

Franz Liszt (1811-1886) Tracks 15, 28

It is generally accepted that Liszt was the greatest pianist of his time, and possibly of all time.  Included in this collection are two of the six Consolations completed during the period 1849-50. They were inspired by an anthology of poems, Poesies et Pensees, about an imaginary poet who supposedly died young, conjured out of the imagination of the French critic and novelist, Saint-Beuve. The pieces are natural and concise, serene and contemplative.

Edward MacDowell (1860-1908) Track 18

MacDowell was a successful pianist, teacher and composer, and the first professor of music at Columbia University. Edward MacDowell’s compositional style was influenced by the German Romantic style. He spent nearly twelve years in Europe and much of that time in Germany.  He brought to America from Europe the tenets of Naturalism which sought to express beauty in untamed nature. This work is representative of that naturalism.  Composed in 1896 at the height of his popularity, Woodland Sketches contained in it, To a Wild Rose, which to this day is his most famous composition.

William Mason (1829-1908) Track 13

Mason was born into a well-known New England family heralded for its musical accomplishments. Mason’s brother was a co-founder of the Hamlin Company, which produced the Mason-Hamlin piano. William Mason became a well-known teacher in America and in 1867, he published a method for the piano-forte.  His compositions from 1849-1856 were composed in the grand virtuoso style. But he abandoned the concert stage in 1857 and his compositional style followed suit. His piano music became somewhat more modest in scope and the Lullaby (1857) is one such composition.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Track 12

The Songs without Words are likely Mendelssohn’s most popular compositions and were frequently performed in middleclass households in his day. In many of these, he cultivated the smaller, more intimate forms derived from the song, and he produced these in profusion from 1830 onwards under the title, Lieder ohne Worte.  Each of the eight cycles contains six compositions totaling 48 in all, ranging in difficulty from fairly easy to quite advanced.

Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925) Tracks 14, 22

For many decades, Moszkowski’s music enjoyed incredible popularity.  Piano teachers often had a stack of his compositions, and professional pianists played his music throughout the world.  His music often falls into a “lighter” vein, it lies well under the pianist’s hands and its melodiousness has an immediate appeal for the listener.

Erik Satie (1866-1925) Track 3

Satie experienced many personal losses and difficulties in his young life. His mother died when he was six. His grandmother who raised him died when he was twelve. The Gymnopédie, of which there are three, were composed in 1888 at age 22 when his father married a woman Erik despised.  Satie forged his own individual style often built around the repetition of small musical units and seemingly static harmonic movement. In Gymnopédie, the musical effect is soothing with just a touch of sadness.

Robert Schumann (1810-1856) Track 8

From Foreign Lands and People is first in a set of twenty short character pieces under the collective title Scenes from Childhood, Op. 15.  Each title descriptively brings to mind a child’s response to events that pass through one’s young experiences. Schumann’s short piano pieces are often distinguished by their intrinsic charm and fantasy, and at times also by their autobiographical nature. It is said that Schumann was unable to compose except at the piano.  As such, the piano was the natural sounding board of his lyrical ideas and for him, the only instrument fully capable of expressing the inexpressible.

 

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