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SOMM Recordings

Great American Sonatas

$20.99

Details

Composer
BERNSTEIN COPLAND HARRISON
Artist
Nathan, Williamson
Format
CD
Label
SOMM Recordings
Released
Feb 03, 2017
Catalog #
SOMMCD 0163
UPC
748871016323

About

This new release of American Piano Sonatas from SOMM reminds the listener of 20th-century America's achievements in music as in so much else. SOMM's new collaboration with pianist Nathan Williamson who has been steeped in American music since his years as a student of piano and composition at Yale has produced an exhilarating album brimming with dynamism and energy. The release includes sonatas by four very different American composers writing under very different circumstances: Leonard Bernstein, a charismatic, ambitious all-round musician in his student years; Aaron Copland, an established master at the height of his powers; Lou Harrison, an inveterate experimentalist setting himself a new problem; and Charles Ives, a dogged individualist insisting on his own way of doing things. In each case, the composer chose not to fit his music into conventional forms, but to rethink the whole idea of the sonata. America is after all the land of the clean sheet, the fresh start – of making things fresh, exciting and new. Nathan, who leads a diverse and varied career as pianist, composer and artistic director studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Joan Havill and Malcolm Singer, at Oxford University with Robert Saxton, and at Yale with Martin Bresnick and Joan Panetti and American composer Ezra Laderman Dean of the Yale School of Music and President of American Academy of Arts and Letters, who died in 2015 at the age of 90. Nathan has dedicated this recording to Laderman as a tribute to a great teacher whose far-reaching influence has inspired him to study the work of American composers in great depth.

Tracklist 11 tracks

  1. 1 I. Molto moderato 09:16
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Molto moderato
    Duration
    09:16
    Composer
    Aaron Copland
    Performer
    Nathan Williamson
  2. 2 II. Vivace 05:17
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Vivace
    Duration
    05:17
    Composer
    Aaron Copland
    Performer
    Nathan Williamson
  3. 3 III. Andante sostenuto 10:54
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Andante sostenuto
    Duration
    10:54
    Composer
    Aaron Copland
    Performer
    Nathan Williamson
  4. 4 I. — 06:06
    Track
    4
    Title
    I. —
    Duration
    06:06
    Composer
    Leonard Bernstein
    Performer
    Nathan Williamson
  5. 5 II. — 11:25
    Track
    5
    Title
    II. —
    Duration
    11:25
    Composer
    Leonard Bernstein
    Performer
    Nathan Williamson
  6. 6 I. Slowish and Singing 05:26
    Track
    6
    Title
    I. Slowish and Singing
    Duration
    05:26
    Composer
    Lou Harrison
    Performer
    Nathan Williamson
  7. 7 II. Fast and Rugged 04:19
    Track
    7
    Title
    II. Fast and Rugged
    Duration
    04:19
    Composer
    Lou Harrison
    Performer
    Nathan Williamson
  8. 8 III. Very slow, very singing and solemn 02:25
    Track
    8
    Title
    III. Very slow, very singing and solemn
    Duration
    02:25
    Composer
    Lou Harrison
    Performer
    Nathan Williamson
  9. 9 Largo ostinato 05:18
    Track
    9
    Title
    Largo ostinato
    Duration
    05:18
    Composer
    Lou Harrison
    Performer
    Nathan Williamson
  10. 10 3-Page Sonata 08:48
    Track
    10
    Title
    3-Page Sonata
    Duration
    08:48
    Composer
    Charles Ives
    Performer
    Nathan Williamson
  11. 11 The Celestial Railroad 09:03
    Track
    11
    Title
    The Celestial Railroad
    Duration
    09:03
    Composer
    Charles Ives
    Performer
    Nathan Williamson