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McDonald, Suesse, Vaughan Williams: Concertos for Two Pianos / Long Duo
Sono Luminus

McDonald, Suesse, Vaughan Williams: Concertos for Two Pianos / Long Duo

$18.99

Details

Composer
MCDONALD SUESSE VAUGHAN-WILL
Artist
LONG DUO
Format
CD
Label
Sono Luminus
Released
Mar 29, 2011
Catalog #
DSL-92129
UPC
053479212924

About



SUESSE Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra. McDONALD Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra. VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra • Long Duo; Patrick Souillot, cond; Eskichir Greater Municipality SO • SONO LUMINUS DSL 92129 (68: 37)


The talented and comely (judging from the booklet cover photo) Taiwanese sisters Beatrice and Christina Long demonstrated considerable enterprise in selecting a couple of rarely performed two-piano concertos (Suesse and McDonald) for this debut recording for the new label Sono Luminus. And, given the limited repertoire for this combination, their additional choice of the roilingly rough-hewn Vaughan Williams makes a kind of sense, although we are still awaiting a first recording of the Piston effort in this genre.


Dana Suesse (1909–87) was a Kansas City prodigy who in her 20s became a prominent member of the “metropolitan” school of composers gathered about, and promoted by, showman-musician Paul Whiteman. After Whiteman’s landmark Aeolian Hall concert that launched Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue , Whiteman became a mentor to a flock of homegrown composers who had one foot firmly in popular music but aspired to concert hall status, thus instituting our first generation of Third Stream music. More or less at the same time (the early ’30s) that Suesse was publishing such hit songs as You Oughta Be in Pictures and My Silent Love (the latter adapted from an earlier piano piece, Nocturne ), she was soloist in the Whiteman premiere of her Concerto in Three Rhythms, which has just been issued on Naxos.


Suesse’s Two-Piano Concerto was labored over during most the 1930s and finally premiered in 1943 by Eugene Goossens with the celebrated two-piano team of Ethel Bartlett and Rae Robinson as soloists. This four-movement piece is a serious and well-proportioned work that, as opposed to the earlier concerto, has only a few dim echoes of Suesse’s pop background. The themes are songfully distinctive and appealing, the formal structure clear and traditional, and the harmonic language an auspicious blend of Grieg and salon music without any soupçon of pretense or banality. This is one of those once-obscure scores that was well worth reviving.


Harl McDonald (1899–1955) was a California-born composer who in later years became closely identified with the Philadelphia Orchestra (eventually serving as its manager) during both the Stokowski and Ormandy eras. A good deal of his music was once available on shellac but, except for his utterly disarming suite for harp and chamber orchestra, From Childhood, it has mostly fallen, undeservedly, into oblivion. Most of his work derived from programmatic concepts (even the four symphonies have movements with titles), but this 1936 two-piano concerto was one of his exceptional efforts in absolute form. As such, it is a very engaging work in conventional tripartite form using a type of Yankee-accented sub-Rachmaninoff idiom, with the middle movement an unexpected theme and variations and the finale employing some of McDonald’s favorite “south of the border” elements. Though the original Stokowski-led recording was reissued on Cala as one of “Stokowski Rarities,” a modern recording was overdue and this one more than meets the mark.


Originally conceived in the 1920s as a solo piano concerto, Vaughan Williams’s Two-Piano Concerto was revised by the composer two decades later, in the process doubling its quotient of energy and tumult. This is quite a challenging score for both the soloists and the orchestra and on balance the Longs hold their own against previous recordings by Whittemore and Lowe (RCA vinyl with Golschmann conducting), Markham and Broadway (Menuhin conducting on Virgin Classics), and the unusually emphatic and fast-clipped Vronsky and Babin, with Boult maintaining a furious pace, on EMI. Though as thoroughly professional as this provincial Turkish orchestra sounds, it can hardly be expected to meet the standards set by the Royal and London Philharmonics. Bearing that in mind, this is a still an acceptably faithful account of the music.


For the Suesse and McDonald works, together with a knowledgeable annotation by the unique cabaret pianist and singer Peter Mintun (who back in the 1970s brought Dana Suesse out of retirement to attend a Carnegie Hall concert of her music featuring conductor Frederick Fennell and pianist Cy Coleman!), this is an essential release not likely to be duplicated in the near or far future. Grab it!


FANFARE: Paul A. Snook

Tracklist 10 tracks

  1. 1 I. Allegro 07:51
    Track
    1
    Title
    I. Allegro
    Duration
    07:51
    Composer
    Dana Suesse
    Ensemble
    Long Duo, Eskisehir Greater Municipality Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Patrick Souillot
  2. 2 II. Adagio 06:40
    Track
    2
    Title
    II. Adagio
    Duration
    06:40
    Composer
    Dana Suesse
    Ensemble
    Long Duo, Eskisehir Greater Municipality Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Patrick Souillot
  3. 3 III. Scherzo 02:31
    Track
    3
    Title
    III. Scherzo
    Duration
    02:31
    Composer
    Dana Suesse
    Ensemble
    Long Duo, Eskisehir Greater Municipality Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Patrick Souillot
  4. 4 IV. Finale 03:03
    Track
    4
    Title
    IV. Finale
    Duration
    03:03
    Composer
    Dana Suesse
    Ensemble
    Long Duo, Eskisehir Greater Municipality Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Patrick Souillot
  5. 5 I. Molto moderato 06:48
    Track
    5
    Title
    I. Molto moderato
    Duration
    06:48
    Composer
    Harl McDonald
    Ensemble
    Long Duo, Eskisehir Greater Municipality Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Patrick Souillot
  6. 6 II. Theme and Variations: Andante espressivo 06:59
    Track
    6
    Title
    II. Theme and Variations: Andante espressivo
    Duration
    06:59
    Composer
    Harl McDonald
    Ensemble
    Long Duo, Eskisehir Greater Municipality Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Patrick Souillot
  7. 7 III. Juarezca: Allegro 06:57
    Track
    7
    Title
    III. Juarezca: Allegro
    Duration
    06:57
    Composer
    Harl McDonald
    Ensemble
    Long Duo, Eskisehir Greater Municipality Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Patrick Souillot
  8. 8 I. Toccata: Allegro moderato 07:17
    Track
    8
    Title
    I. Toccata: Allegro moderato
    Duration
    07:17
    Composer
    Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Ensemble
    Long Duo, Eskisehir Greater Municipality Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Patrick Souillot
  9. 9 II. Romanza: Lento 09:17
    Track
    9
    Title
    II. Romanza: Lento
    Duration
    09:17
    Composer
    Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Ensemble
    Long Duo, Eskisehir Greater Municipality Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Patrick Souillot
  10. 10 III. Fuga chromatica con finale alla tedseca: Allegro 11:18
    Track
    10
    Title
    III. Fuga chromatica con finale alla tedseca: Allegro
    Duration
    11:18
    Composer
    Ralph Vaughan Williams
    Ensemble
    Long Duo, Eskisehir Greater Municipality Symphony Orchestra
    Conductor
    Patrick Souillot