Daniel Gregory Mason & Frederick Shepherd Converse: Violin Sonatas

On this CD:

1. Sonata for violin & piano in G minor, Op. 5
Composed by Daniel Gregory Mason
Performed by Phillip Bush, Kevin Lawrence

2. Sonata for clarinet (or violin) & piano, Op 14
Composed by Daniel Gregory Mason
Performed by Phillip Bush, Kevin Lawrence

3. Sonata for violin & piano in A major, Op. 1
Composed by Frederick Shepherd Converse
Performed by Phillip Bush, Kevin Lawrence

Tracks:

Con, Op.4 No.6: 1. Allegro Moderato
Con, Op.4 No.6: 2. Larghetto
Con, Op.4 No.6: Cadenza - Marcel Grandjany
Con, Op.4 No.6: 3. Allegro Moderato
Str Qt On Negro Themes, Op.19: 1. Allegro Commodo, Ma Con Spirto
Str Qt On Negro Themes, Op.19: 2. Larghetto Tranquillo-Allegro Scherzoso-Tempo 1
Str Qt On Negro Themes, Op.19: 3. Allegro Moderato, Drammatico-Allegro Vivace
Danse Sacree Et Danse Profane
Two Sketches Based On Indian Themes: 1. Lento E Mesto - The Budapest Str Qt
Two Sketches Based On Indian Themes: 2. Allegro Giocoso - The Budapest Str Qt
Str Qt in F, Op.96 'The American': Lento
Dinah - The Budapest Str Qt

Album Description

Here is a real rarity- music that the legendary Budapest String Quartet never recorded commercially- released for the first time ever! This disc also features as guest artist the great French-American harp virtuoso, Marcel Grandjany, in two favorites- Handel's Harp Concerto, and Debussy's gorgeous Harp Dances. Included here are Daniel Gregory Mason's forgotten masterpiece, Quartet on Negro Themes, Griffes' Sketches on Indian Themes, and a haunting live performance of the Lento from Dvorak's "American" Quartet, a work the Budapest recorded in the studio several times. As an added bonus, the fabulous foursome is heard in an arrangement of the pop tune "Dinah"- a hilarious sendup of both classical and pop music. Souvenir allows the listener to sample a hitherto little known side of the Budapest's work, all in superbly restored sound from Bridge's path breaking Great Performances from The Library of Congress series.

Average customer rating:

A good sampler of music nearly forgotten
Early American String Quartets
Buy this for the repertoire, not the performances.

The Early String Quartet In The U.S.A.

Manufacturer: Vox (Classical)
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Quintets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Str Qt in e: Andante Moderato
Str Qt in e: Andante Semplice
Str Qt in e: Giocoso, Un Poco Moderato
Str Qt in e: Finale: Allegro Molto Risoluto
Music: Poco Adagio
Music: Adagio Ma Non Troppo
Music: Finale: Moderato
Two Sketches Based On Indian Themes: Lento E Mesto
Two Sketches Based On Indian Themes: Allegro Giocoso
Str Qt: Intrada, Alla Breve
Str Qt:: Menuetto
Str Qt: Capriccio
Str Qt: Menuetto
Str Qt: Siciliana

Tracks:

Str Qt in g (Based on Negro Themes), Op.19: Allegro Commodo, Ma Con Spirito
Str Qt in g (Based on Negro Themes), Op.19: Larghetto Tranquillo
Str Qt in g (Based on Negro Themes), Op.19: Allegro Moderato, Drammatico
Str Qt in D, Op.70: Allegro
Str Qt in D, Op.70: Scherzo Capriccioso
Str Qt in D, Op.70: Andante Espressivo
Str Qt in D, Op.70: Finale: Allegro Non Troppo
Pno Qnt in a, Op.50: Allegro Energico - Isabelle Byman
Pno Qnt in a, Op.50: Andante - Isabelle Byman
Pno Qnt in a, Op.50: Scherzo: Allegro Giocoso - Isabelle Byman
Pno Qnt in a, Op.50: Finale: Allegro Con Brio - Isabelle Byman

Customer Reviews:

A good sampler of music nearly forgotten.......2005-02-13

First of three Vox Box sets (The best is the third, Contemporary String Quartet in the U.S.A.).

Charles Ives is the silent presence throughout this collection, for many of these works represent what Ives rebeled against & parodied. But given their time & place, we are now more appreciative of the "Boston School" & their contemporaries. What is remarkable is that this music sounds more American than German to our ears. Deliberately so in Daniel Gregory Mason's Quartet on Negro Themes. A contemporary of Ives, Mason (b. 1873) deserves credit for recognizing the best fruit of our musical vine; he took up those themes with care, respect & admiration.

Likewise the first of Charles Tomlinson Griffes' Two Sketches Based on [Chippewa] Indian Themes, a lovely piece in which he sensitively, & sentimentally, tried to capture the tone qualities of Native American performance as well as the modalities. The work has originality.

The example of Dvorak eventually got to Charles Whitefield Chadwick (b. 1954). Typed as an "academic" in the liner notes, the label hardly accounts for the high spirits, cheeky humor, & the ease with which he incorporates a vernacular musical language. This Quartet now strikes the ears as related to Ives' First Symphony, which has a bolder harmonic language & is more entertaining, yet both make a similar overall impression.

Charles Martin Loeffler (b. 1861) used a motif from Gregorian chant in composing his elegiac Music for Four Stringed Instruments in memory of his Victor Chapman, a pilot killed in World War One. It's a worthy work from tragic decade that inspired so many memorable memorials.

The pretty andante in Henry Hadley's nicely-crafted Piano Quintet could have come from the Paris Conservatoire.

Even The four brief pieces "as originally written for open strings" & attributed to Benjamin Franklin are amusing novelties; someone put effort into making them.

One would not mistake the Kohon Quartet for The Emerson, but on these late-Sixties recordings they perform with enthusiasm & committment. The Kohon premiered the complete Ives 1st Quartet in performance (1957) & on vinyl (1964, Vox), & they received the Grand Prix du Disque in 1964 for their recording of the Alban Berg String Quartet #3. Although most of these compositions are now available elsewhere, Early American String Quartets is a very good sampler.

Early American String Quartets.......2002-11-23

A great CD of rarely heard music. The energy and raw edgyness of the performance is compelling. It's not an over-processed sound, instead it's very real. Highly recommended!

Buy this for the repertoire, not the performances........2002-09-22

Fascinating exploration of now forgotten American composers. The program notes are well written and informative. Unfortunately the performances rarely rise above an undergraduate, state-school level, and often sink below. The recorded sound one dimensional and the quartet sounds as if they play on plywood instruments. However, if you're researching repertoire, this is an important recording, and hopefully these beautiful pieces will be visited by greater artists in the near future!

Average customer rating:

David Wright

Manufacturer: Centaur
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000057TJ
Release Date: 1993-11-04

Average customer rating:

Saucy, Melodic, Old-Fashioned American Wind Quintet Music

Vintage America: A Musical Meritage

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Marches | Miscellaneous | Styles | Music

Classical | Indie Music | Stores | Music
ASIN: B0002NY8LM
Release Date: 2004-08-31

Tracks:

Dance Antique
Fireside Tales
Divertimento
Prairie Miniature
Miniatures
Folk Suite
Two Rags
Sea Sketches
Stars & Stripes

Album Description

America began forging its own cultural identity in the 19th Century with music reflecting a vast array of cultures coming together. By the time the first music conservatory opened in 1865, European classical music had begun to be mingled with music influenced by Native American themes, African-American styles of ragtime and spirituals, Latin American and rural American folk music, and the traditional military band. With Vintage America, Calico Winds showcases these American musical roots. Known for exploring the full palette of tone colors available to the wind quintet, Calico Winds plays "in perfect balance with each other, each [member] contributing lovely tone quality and flawless intonation…" (The Times Herald, Olean, NY) It is with these attributes that Calico Winds brings to life America's rich musical legacy.

Customer Reviews:

Saucy, Melodic, Old-Fashioned American Wind Quintet Music.......2004-09-13

[Disclaimer: I'm a pushover for wind quintet music. There is something about the uneasy combination of timbres that unfailingly engages my interest and admiration.]

I found myself having trouble getting beyond the first band on this delightful release from Albany Records featuring the playing of a Los Angeles-based wind quintet calling themselves 'Calico Winds.' I kept pushing the repeat button to hear it one more time. It's that rhythmically invigorating and melodic. The music presented here is almost all by Americans, some from among those first conservatory-trained American composers of the 19th-century: William Mason, his nephew Daniel Gregory Mason, and Edward MacDowell. The more recent composers tend to write in conservative style so that the most recent work, 'Sea Sketches' by the only non-American, Briton David B. Chadwick, could be mistaken for something by an early twentieth-century writer. Some of the pieces are skillful transcriptions for quintet: Mason's 'Dance Antique,' that infectious first band I'd mentioned; MacDowell's 'Fireside Tales,' William Grant Still's folk-song based 'Miniatures' and 'Folk Suite,' Scott Joplin's 'Two Rags' ('The Cascades' and 'Maple Leaf Rag'), and the rousing closer, Sousa's 'The Stars and Stripes Forever.' Indeed, the only works originally written for wind quintet are Daniel Gregory Mason's 'Divertimento,' Arthur Farwell's brief and delightful 'Prairie Miniature,' and Chadwick's 'Sea Sketches.' That latter, by the way, has a catchy setting of 'The Sailors' Hornpipe,' another piece I couldn't get enough of.

Calico Winds consists of five women: Eileen Holt Helwig, flute and piccolo; Rong-Huey Liu, oboe and English horn; Rachel Berry, horn; Kathryn Nevin, clarinet; and Theresa Treuenfels, bassoon. I'd never heard of this expert and musicianly group before, although I gather they have made at least one prior recording on the humorously named 'Occasionally Sober' label and containing music from Bach to Zappa. I expect we'll be hearing from them again, if we're lucky.

This is not profound music. This is joyful music. It's worth hearing, and more important, worth coming to love. A real keeper, this.

TT=62:00

Scott Morrison

Carpenter: Sea Drift; Hadley: Scherzo Diabolique; Mason: Chanticleer; Porter: Dance in Tree-time

Average customer rating:

Carpenter: Sea Drift; Hadley: Scherzo Diabolique; Mason: Chanticleer; Porter: Dance in Tree-time

Manufacturer: New World Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Chanticleer Festival Overture
Dance In Three - Time
Sea Drift
Scherzo Diabolique

Average customer rating:

The Incredible Flutist
Ulysses Kay , Walter Piston , Peggy Stuart-Coolidge , Daniel Gregory Mason , Siegfried Landau , Paul Freeman , David Epstein , Aristid von Wurtzler , and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Symphony Orchestra
Manufacturer: Vox (Classical)
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Compilations | Classical | Styles | Music
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