A Celebration of Early American Composers features American pianist Margaret Mills who has chosen piano works by Amy Beach, Ruth Crawford, and Charles Ives in...

A Celebration of Early American Composers features American pianist Margaret Mills who has chosen piano works by Amy Beach, Ruth Crawford, and Charles Ives in a program that compares their individual vision of musical Modernism during the first half of the 20th Century. The disc includes Beach's Five Improvisations for Piano, Op. 148, and four short pieces -- By the Still Waters, Op. 114; Out of the Depths, Op. 130; which are contrasted with two earlier works from Op. 54 - Scottish Legend and Gavotte Fantastique. Ruth Crawford is represented by her Nine Preludes for Piano. The release also features two movements from Charles Ives' Piano Sonata No. 2 Concord, Mass. - "The Alcotts" and "Thoreau." Margaret Mills enjoys an international reputation as a concert pianist, having performed throughout the United States, Europe and China. In addition to her frequent appearances at universities and festivals around the world, Ms. Mills has given solo recitals in Wigmore Hall, London, Brahms-Saal, Vienna, Merkin Concert Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie hall in New York City. Her repertoire, spanning the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries, includes traditional European music alongside newer American works, many of them by women composers, and several world premieres. “Her touch, pure silver and soft velvet one moment, can change in a heartbeat to fire and brimstone the next, always finding just the right tone of voice and way of phrasing and sustaining a line that turns a measure magical.” (Jerry Dubins, Fanfare)