CONTENTS:

• Mark Carlson: Cave Paintings
• Allan Stephenson: Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra
• Noel Stockton: Rhapsody for Saxophone and Orchestra
• Paul Chihara: Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra

David H Park, ‘a soloist with extraordinary artistic gifts’, (Pulitzer Prize winner-Salt Lake Tribune), ‘that commands respect … of the highest order,’ (Le Journal Sud Ouest, DN), started playing the violin at the age of five in Seoul, Korea. Park has studied with two of the most distinguished pedagogues, Josef Gingold and Dorothy Delay. He received his Bachelor of Music at the University of Indiana, where he also studied with Yuval Yaron, and Master of Music at the Juilliard School. At the age of 14, he was one of the youngest students of the legendary Jascha Heifetz. Park maintains a balance between his engagements as soloist with orchestras throughout the world and his recital and chamber music activities. Park has performed solos and recitals in many of the world's great concert halls including Carnegie Recital Hall and Alice Tully Hall in New York, Salle Pleyel in Paris, and Sejong Music Center in Seoul. Park has also performed on national television and radio broadcasts in the United States, France, Hong Kong and Korea. Park was featured on KUTV CBS News; where according to the website blog, his performance brought tears to the news anchor, commenting ‘so pure and perfect.’

CONTENTS:

• Consuelo Velasquez: Besame Mucho

• Kreisler: Praeludium and Allegro
  

• Piazzólla: Tanti anni prima ('Ave Maria')

• Caccini: Ave Maria

• Monti: Csárdás

• Django Reinhardt: Echoes of Spain

• Albéniz: Tango

• Piazzólla: Vuelvo al sur

• Bart Howard: Fly Me to the Moon

• Kosma: Les feuilles mortes

• Vivaldi: The Four Seasons: Summer

• Guglielmi, L: La vie en rose

Scot A. Humes, DMA, is Professor of Music at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, joining the faculty in the fall of 2006. His duties include teaching applied Clarinet and Saxophone, Sophomore Aural Skills, and Form & Analysis.

Humes is Principal Clarinet of the Monroe Symphony Orchestra (LA) and the Vashon Opera Orchestra (WA), and performs frequently in the clarinet sections of the Shreveport Symphony, Rapides Symphony, Lake Charles Symphony, and South Arkansas Symphony. As a soloist he has performed the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the Peconic Chamber Orchestra, Frank Martin’s Concerto for 7 Wind Instruments, Percussion and String Orchestra with the Stony Brook Symphony under the direction of Leon Fleischer, C.M. von Weber’s Concertino on tour with the University of Louisiana at Monroe Wind Ensemble, Weber Concerto No. 2 with the Monroe Symphony Orchestra, and John Williams’ Victors Tale (from the movie The Terminal) with the Shreveport Symphony. He is the clarinetist of duo per se with Steinway Artist, Tania Tachkova.

The duo has given master classes and recital tours throughout the USA, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. duo per se will record and release their first cd recording is 2021, comprised of works composed for them, among others.

This work by contemporary American composer Karlton Hester aspires to demonstrate the uninterrupted connection of vibrational consciousness that exists between Earth’s molecular, spiritual, and intellectual intersections. Instrumentation includes flutes, saxophones, trumpet, pipa, woodwinds, voice, percussion, and bass.

Young Steinway Artist Han Xiang David Xu is an active Chinese-Canadian concert pianist, who maintains deep interest and extra-musical possibilities in other art forms, including ballet, painting, and Taichi. As a martial art practitioner, Xu is heavily influenced, his MMus dissertation was on Taichi Principals and Piano Performance Techniques. For the past few years, Xu has studied many other styles of martial arts and even received his certificate as a professional instructor for Functional Range Conditioning. To go further with his research on the subject, Xu took another Master of Science degree from Royal College of Music. His thesis is on Experience of Fundamental Martial Arts Training for Young Concert Pianists.

After moving to Vancouver, David began studies with Ian Parker, before eventually graduating and studying at the Eastman School of Music, where he studied with Professor Rebecca Penneys. He continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, under the tutelage of Pascal Nemirovski, and graduated with high honors. Xu has given several recital tours across China over the past few years, with stops in Beijing, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Xiamen, and Guangzhou.

His album Sonatas on Canvas received prizes in three categories in the Global Music Award: Classical Solo Piano, Album, and Emerging Artist. He is a prize winner in many competitions including the Rome International Piano Competition, International Music Competition Paris Grand Prize Virtuoso, and Canadian Music Competition. In 2019, he was invited to feature in a new Jaguar commercial for their new XFL sedan. Aside of being a concert pianist he is also an educator. In the past few years Xu has adjudicated in many major international piano competitions.

Philippine-born pianist, composer, and educator Dr. Charisse Baldoria draws upon Western pianism, her Southeast Asian and Hispanic heritage, and various art forms in her work. Prizewinner of international piano competitions, she has performed as a soloist on five continents and established a career as a musician with multidisciplinary interests. She has collaborated with dancers, visual artists, performance artists, and Hindustani classical performers, performs her own compositions, and explores the art of improvisation. Her album Gamelan on Piano features music inspired by Southeast Asia while Evocación showcases flamenco and tango inspirations. Her recently recorded all-Godowsky album features the complete Java Suite inspired by pianist-composer Leopold Godowsky’s travels to the island of Java in 1923, as well as other pieces inspired by non-Western cultures. Recordings of her song cycles Alchemy and The Kiss based on the poems of Denise Levertov and Sara Teasdale are also being prepared for release.

Established by pianists and Lamar University faculty members Sujung Cho and Jacob Clark, Duo Korusa is a versatile piano duo/duet team dedicated to the performance of lesser-known works of the 19th and 20th century, as well as new works of the 21st century. Started in 2012, Duo Korusa has been performing composed piano duet works throughout the United States. Their recording of Diabelli’s Sonata in C major for Piano Four Hands has been published by Symposium, the peer-reviewed journal of CMS and is available in the recording archives of Symposium’s online journal. Duo Korusa has worked closely with the composer Thomas Dempster, premiering his work “Congaree Voices” for piano duet and electronic track at the South Carolina Music Teachers State Conference at Anderson University and then performing it at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival at the Abrons Arts Center and Electroacoustic Barn Dance at the University of Mary Washington.

Pianist Jacob Clark received his musical education primarily in Texas, completing his BM, MM, and DMA in piano performance at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Clark has been awarded prizes in several competitions, mostly notably being named a prizewinner in the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, Sidney Wright Accompanying Competition, the Janice K. Hodges Contemporary Piano Performance Award, and the Mid-Texas Symphony Concerto Competition.

Pianist Sujung Cho is a native of Korea, where she was an honor scholarship graduate at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. She holds her master’s degree in Piano Performance and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano Performance from the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. Her formal teachers include Awadagin Pratt, Elisabeth Pridonoff, Eugene Pridonoff, and Sandra Rivers.

With sparkling articulation reminiscent of the remarkable Alicia de Larrocha, pianist Pola Baytelman probes deeply to the heart of whatever music she plays. Keeping the composer’s intent foremost, she plays with effortless technique, listening always. The press has called her playing “formidable” and having “a diaphanous touch.” Baytelman is an active recitalist with a broad repertory that covers from the 18th to the 21st century. She has toured extensively in China, Europe, Hong Kong, South America, and across the United States.

Pola Baytelman is Distinguished Artist-in-Residence at Skidmore College, in Saratoga Springs,N.Y. where she was chosen to present the Moseley Lecture-Recital in 2006, the highest honor Skidmore faculty confers on a colleague. Her latest compact disc, “From Chile to Cuba,” was released by Albany Records in 2009. Baytelman’s recording of Robert Schumann’s Humoreske (2002 Centaur) was listed by American Record Guide as one of the top three performances of the classic work.

Daniel Weeks is an American Tenor and Artist/Professor. In 2015, he joined the voice faculty of the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, and continues to maintain a performance career encompassing opera, concert, solo recitals, and recordings. Praised for his Italianate voice and sensitive musicianship, Mr. Weeks is also a highly sought-after teacher and master clinician. From 1998-2015, he was a member of the faculty at the University of Louisville. Pianist-composer Gregory Partain has appeared as recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist around the world.

Solungga Liu has been acclaimed as a pianist of great breadth. She is a champion of early twentieth-century American music and underrepresented works of the standard repertoire. She is also known as an uncanny interpreter of new music. The American Record Guide described her recording “The Pleasure-Dome of Kubla Khan: Piano Works of Charles Tomlinson Griffes” for Centaur Records, as having, “excellent sound, sensitivity and beguiling color,” to which the Seattle Post-Intelligencer added, “This is an excellent recording. Liu has done justice to this sometime overlooked body of work with her playing, as she pays tribute to a unique and evocative composer.”

Michele Fazio graduates in Piano, Master of Arts, with the highest grades and praise at the Conservatory “Niccolò Piccinni” in Bari under the guidance of Mr. Cinzia Falco. He continued his studies privately from the beginning with the Mr. Alfonso Soldano and he perfected under the high magisterium of the Mr. Pierluigi Camicia at the European Arts Academy Aldo Ciccolini’ of Trani. His first transcriptions for piano entitled ‘Baccanale’ from the Opera ‘Samson and Dalila’ by Saint Seans and the ‘Notturno per Orchestra’ by J. Massenet from the ‘Suite N. 1 Op. 13’ are in progress, and he is releasing his first piano album, that will be released in the 2022, with the prestigious American label ‘Centaur Records’, with which he is under contract, entitled ‘100 years of Sonata form’ , dedicated to three sonatas composed in exactly 100 years, The Second Sonata of Brahms, Bartok’s Sonata and Ginastera’s Sonata.

Dr. Alta Marie Boover joined Mary Siciliano (piano) and John Madison (viola) in their album – Of Time and Love – includes works of Johannes Brahms, Nicolas Bacri and Charles Loeffler.

Composer Hans Gál was born near Vienna in 1890. He rose to fame in the 1920s as a composer and scholar. His compositional style was considered more traditional than other composers, but his music is nonetheless fresh and infused with chromaticism and counterpoint. He was an extremely successful composer of all genres, especially opera.

Ernst Krenek’s early musical development was informed by the middle-class cultural ambient of the city of Vienna. Already at an early age he heard his mother playing “salon pieces” on the piano; they attended musical theater performances and the Sunday matinees conducted by Alexander Zemlinsky in the nearby Volksoper. The popular repertoire of operettas, military bands, and cabaret also had a fixed place in the life of the Kreneks.

Ernst Krenek learned a wide spectrum of musical literature from his piano teacher. Together they played four-hand arrangements of operas and symphonies. The works of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss had a great influence on him, especially the latter, since at that time he was – as the ‘leader of the most radical modernism’ (Krenek, Memoirs) – on the path to world fame. In spite of their merely playful, childish aspirations, his own early attempts at composition can be associated to his biographical world. In terms of style, they are clearly obliged to the musical language of Viennese classicism and romanticism. The titles of these sometimes only partially realized compositions prove to be an interesting mirror of the social reality of the not yet ten-year-old: biblical and sacred motifs dominate alongside references to historical events, above all from the military history of the Habsburg Monarchy. These ambitious works were complemented by smaller marches and waltzes for piano. In his early and mid-teens, a clear development toward vocal settings of German poetry is evident, be it as art songs or choral works. Occasional instrumental works, such as variation works for piano trio, a sonata for cello and piano, or a stage work, are early testimony of the diversity in Krenek’s future oeuvre.

REVIEW:

Collectors who’ve resisted the thorny atonality of Ernst Krenek’s mature piano music will find his earlier works for the instrument, well, tonal and not all that thorny! Think of Max Reger’s short piano pieces or Korngold’s keyboard output, and you’ve basically got the young Krenek.

Listen to the First sonata’s zestful and harmonically restless Rondo finale, for example. I would have mistaken it for an idiomatic piano transcription of one of Richard Strauss’ late-period wind ensemble pieces. The Sonatina No. 2 Gavotte’s modulatory wanderlust makes the Gavotte from Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony sound minimalist by comparison. In the single-movement Sonatina No. 5 and the Six Piano Pieces, Krenek begins to branch out into the terse expressive qualities, angular phrasings, and tonal ambiguity characterizing his later sonatas.

Mikhail Korzhev makes a cogent and convincing case for this repertoire, which comes as no surprise, given his dazzling and authoritative recordings of Krenek’s first three piano concertos. The pianist’s incisive fingerwork vivifies sequences in obsessive dotted rhythms, such as in the Sonatina No. 1’s Vivace finale and the Sonatina No. 3’s Scherzettino, while giving ample attention to bass lines. Korzhev plays up the Sonatina No. 2’s central Theme and Variations sudden mood shifts in a way that never makes them sound episodic or fragmented. He clearly understands and believes in the music, which makes this release an ever more valuable addition to the Krenek discography.

-- ClassicsToday.com (Jed Dislter)

Edoardo Turbil is considered one of the most brilliant Italian pianists of his generation. Praised by leading figures of the international music world, such as Paul Badura-Skoda or Solomon Mikowsky, who hailed him as an “excellent pianist, with sensitivity and a well-developed technique,” and “able to satisfy the highest artistic expectations,” Turbil has appeared—as recitalist, soloist with orchestras, or in chamber ensembles—in the most important Italian and international concert halls and seasons, such as the Teatro Regio in Turin (with the Philharmonic Orchestra of the 1900s), the Festival of the Two Worlds in Spoleto, the Alte Oper Mozart Saal in Frankfurt, the “G. Verdi” Theater in Turin (with the Orchestra Sinfonica Giovanile del Piemonte), the Sala Mozart of Accademia Filarmonica in Bologna, the Sala della Pergola and Municipal Theater in Florence, the Zunfthaus zur Waag in Zurich, the Albrizzi Palace in Venice, and also in San Jose, Santa Clara, Bern, Rome, among others. On this release he performs a program of works by Prokofiev, Bach, and Villa-Lobos.