Warren, E.R.: Singing Earth / The Harp Weaver / The Sleeping

Pergolesi, G.B.: Laudate Pueri / Mass in G Major / Salve Reg

Jakob Gimpel at Ambassador Auditorium, Vol. 3 (1979, 1977)

Includes work(s) by Madeleine Dring. Soloists: Leigh Kaplan, Louise Di Tullio, Susan Pitts, Robin Paterson, Shelly Manne, Ray Brown, Bud Shank, Bill Perkins.

The highlight of this is the first modern recording of the Taktakishvili concerto. Born in Tiflis, the Georgian composer Otar Taktakishvili often incorporated Georgian themes, both ancient and original, as the basis for his highly idiomatic compositional style. While still a student at the Tblisi Conservatory, Taktakishvili won the Republic contest for his Georgian Anthem (1945) and upon graduation two years later launched his musical career as an accompanist, choral director and conductor. In 1966, he became Professor of Music at the Tblisi Conservatory. He received the Lenin Prize in 1982 and also served as the Secretary of the USSR Union of Composers and as the Minister of Culture of Georgia. The piano concerto recorded here is an early work composed in 1950 and premiered the next year in Tblisi. Several themes of the Concerto are derived from Russian folk songs. The Korean pianist Jungran Kim Khwarg received a scholarship from the President of the Republic of Korea which allowed her to study at Juilliard. Today she lives and studies in California. The Korean conductor Dong Hyock Hyun is currently Principal Guest Conductor of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and the Music Director and Conductor of the Golden State Philharmonic Orchestra.

Christmas

Rozsa, M.: Duo, Op. 7 / Trio-Serenade / Piano Quintet, Op. 2

William Corbett-Jones is a distinguished artist/professor at San Francisco State University and has performed throughout the world as soloist with orchestra, recitalist and in collaboration with internationally renowned colleagues. He is also widely known as a masterclass teacher. In addition, Mr. Corbett-Jones has made several recordings and educational films and served as artist in residence at the University of Southern California. He has also taught in Australia, Syria and China.

Sibelius, J.: Violin Concerto, Op. 47 / Diciedue, R.: Violin

Known by connoisseurs the world over as a "musician's musician" and as one of the great piano virtuosos of the 20th century, Jakob Gimpel, who was born in Polish Austria, was especially known for his unique interpretations of Chopin. To these, he brought a classical elegance, authentically born of his intimate familiarity with the Polish musical ethos and the cultural stylistic brilliance of Imperial Vienna, combined with a formidable musical intellect and a poetic and tonal imagination. Sadly, he never enjoyed a major career (he died in 1989). He made a few recordings for Vox in the middle 1940s, a few recordings elsewhere, but they never attracted much attention. He ended up teaching in Los Angeles and toward the end of his life he gave highly effective concerts at the Ambassador College in Pasadena. Harold Schonberg has said: " He should have been recognized as a great pianist from the beginning, but history has passed him over. The man had everything - unerring fingers; a big, juicy sound; an ear that supplied him with all kinds of coloristic effects, and a musical approach that combined an authentic 19th-Century romanticism with an unusual degree of personality. He makes you hear new things in the music without ever sounding forced or eccentric. These ideas will be unsettling to literalists, but they make sense and throw us back to a period when artists were expected to impose their own ideas about the music without distorting the notes or the meaning. We also have in stock the first volume in this series, an All-Chopin Recital that he gave in the Ambassador Auditorium on May 11, 1978 Cambria CB 1070, a two CD set also available at a special price.

Cambria Master Recordings is pleased to announce Reinhold Glière Piano Compositions featuring pianist Alton Chan. Dr. Chan, a Grammy® Award nominee, has been termed "full of poetic imagination, fiery and uninhibited" by the Hong Kong New Evening Post. He has recorded for the Marco Polo, Naxos, Toccata Classics, and Warner Bros. labels. The release includes Glière’s Eight Easy Piano Pieces (Pièces Faciles), Opus 43 (1909); Twelve Sketches (Esquisses), Opus 47 (1909); Twelve Children’s Pieces (Pièces Enfantines), Opus 31 (1907); and Impromptu in E Major for the Left Hand Alone, Opus 99, No. 1 (1955). Despite that Glière’s numerous operas, ballets, cantatas and symphonic works won him the prestigious Glinka Prize three times, the Stalin Prize in 1941, and that he was hailed by the former USSR as Artist of the People, his piano music is seldom recorded or programmed by concert pianists.

This release was the brainchild of Greg Kostraba, then a Toledo, Ohio-based classical radio producer and a pianist of some skill (semi-finalist, Fourth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition). He came across the Jerome Moross Sonatina for Clarinet Choir and prevailed upon the clarinet section of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and several distinguished colleagues to play it and the Osbora work for his radio program. The success of that venture led to a search for more repertoire, and a Mellon Foundation grant made this CD a reality.

Child-prodigy composer Moross made his name in Hollywood producing film and television music including the Oscar-nominated score for The Big Country; one can easily hear the Coplandesque style of the 1950s Western in this score. Written on a commission from his publisher, it is not the expected easy work for students, but pleases with its exploitation of the clarinet choir sonorities and with melodies that linger after the work has ended. This and the Quartet for Four B-flat Clarinets by clarinetist Sean Osborn - a friend of one of the Toledo group - are the most engaging of the program. The Osborn is a short four-movement work, with an opening movement that dances, a spiky scherzo, and a meditative slow movement nicely spiced with mild dissonances. The Grainger-like last movement is reminiscent of the British-band folk-music tradition.

Of course, William Grant Still is the best known name among the four and a composer of a large number of highly accessible works. The Lyric Quartet-a string quartet in real life-presents charming portraits of three unidentified friends of contrasting temperament: sentimental, quiet, and jovial. The jovial friend may have been Jewish, given the touch of klezmer here, or maybe that's the arrangement. The Christmas work, arrangements of folk tunes from around the Western hemisphere, was written for voices and piano among several options. Still's settings of the mostly unfamiliar carols are straightforward and complement the simple charm of the originals. Kostraba's transcription simply replaces the four string voices with clarinets. There is nothing terribly novel here, nor anything that one would consider top-drawer.

The program ends with a work commissioned for this recording: young Ohio-based composer Christopher Dietz's dark rumination on Psalm 130, "Out of the Depths." It is easily the most contemporary work here, reminiscent of Berg at times, though not dodecaphonic, and shows off the beautiful blend and excellent control of the ensemble.

- Ronald E. Grames, Fanfare, May/June 2010

Cambria Master Recordings is pleased to announce Urban Counterpoint - The Piano Music of Ed Bland featuring pianist Judith Olson (Cambria-1256). As a preeminent African-American classical composer working in the second half of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, Ed Bland refined his compositional style through the fusion of early 20th-century Western European music culture (a la Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring), with the juxtaposition of traditional African-American jazz and gospel roots and complex rhythmic patterns of West African drumming. Throughout his career, Mr. Bland enjoyed the challenge of writing for various combinations of instruments (even if seldom used) and his compositions always included a broad range of textures, with a diversity of rhythms which is most evident in the nine works for piano presented on this recording. From Classical Soul, Cell fone Blues, and Phunky Phrogs Rag to Three Chaconnes in Blue, Ed Bland's key objective was to simultaneously maintain the "aesthetic Now," or "extended Now" of jazz improvisation, and unpredictability of the work within a coherent structure. None of this could have been realized without the remarkable collaboration of pianist Judith Olson. Olson worked on interpretation of the works with Ed Bland for several years before going into a studio to record the definitive version. Athough the works might seem like improvisations, in fact they are precisely notated within a strictly classical structure. Urban Counterpoint is Cambria's second release of the music of Ed Bland. Previously, Cambria issued Urban Classical, which features instrumental works composed by Mr. Bland.

Romancing Chopin is a new release of arrangements for chamber orchestra showcasing Chopin's genius from a fresh perspective, as well as new compositions inspired by the work of Chopin combining his compositional techniques and style with those of contemporary composers Alexander Rapoport and Ronald Royer. The recording features the Toronto Symphony conducted by Matthew Jaskiewicz. Guest artists include pianist Valerie Tryon, flutist Nora Schulman, clarinetist Kaye Royer and cellist Coenraad Bloemendal. When music historians are analyzing the importance of a composer to the history of music, they examine not only the compositions themselves, but also the composer's influence on other composers. The music of Chopin continues to be loved and respected as a monument to his genius, but he has also had a significant influence ona variety of composers up to the present day.

All the arrangements on this CD are by Dan Willett who has been a member of the University of Missouri-Columbia music faculty since 1982. He is a member of the Missouri Quintet which is the woodwind quintet-in-residence at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Fine Arts. Since its formation in 1978, the Quintet has presented recitals throughout the nation including Weill Hall (formerly Carnegie Recital Hall) debut to favorable critical review in 1989.