Leo Sowerby: Music for Violin and Piano

On this CD:

1. Sonata for violin & piano in B flat, H 165
Composed by Leo Sowerby
Performed by Robert Murray, Gail Quillman

2. Sonata for violin & piano in D, H 367
Composed by Leo Sowerby
Performed by Robert Murray, Gail Quillman

3. American Pieces (2) for violin & piano, H 174
Composed by Leo Sowerby
Performed by Robert Murray, Gail Quillman

Tracks:

Divert: Tempo Di Marcia
Divert: Allegretto Scherzando
Divert: Adagio
Divert: Allegro
Duo: Allegro Con Fuoco
Duo: Lento
Movt: Andante
Movt: Allegro
Movt: Largo
Movt: Vivace
Son: Allegro Con Fuoco
Son: Adagio
Son: Allegro Vivace
Trio: Allegro
Trio: Vars On A Moravian Folk Song
Trio: Molto Vivace

All American: Works for Violin and Organ, Vol. 5

Average customer rating:

All American: Works for Violin and Organ, Vol. 5

Manufacturer: Raven Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00009RXI4
Release Date: 2003-06-24

Average customer rating:

Flute Americana, lyrical in a profound way
A refreshing style of writing which is entirely original.

Leo Sowerby: Trio

Manufacturer: Premier Recordings
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000009CSH
Release Date: 1994-08-29

Tracks:

Son: Allegro - Zizi Mueller/Emma Tahmizian
Son: Adagio - Zizi Mueller/Emma Tahmizian
Son: Presto - Zizi Mueller/Emma Tahmizian
Canzone: Moderato - Zizi Mueller/Emma Tahmizian
Little Trio: Larghetto/Allegro Con Brio/Andante Sostenuto - Zizi Mueller/Yuval Waldman/Jesse Levine/Emma Tahmizian
Little Trio: Presto - Zizi Mueller/Yuval Waldman/Jesse Levine/Emma Tahmizian
Ser: Andante Con Moto - Zizi Mueller/Yuval Waldman
Son: Adagio/Allegro - Zizi Mueller
Son: Adagio - Zizi Mueller
Son: Vivace - Zizi Mueller
Trio: Wayward, Dreamily - Zizi Mueller/Yuval Waldman/Jesse Levine/Emma Tahmizian
Trio: Brisk And Pert - Zizi Mueller/Yuval Waldman/Jesse Levine/Emma Tahmizian
Slowly, In A Lyrical Vein - Zizi Mueller/Yuval Waldman/Jesse Levine/Emma Tahmizian
Trio: Fast And Light - Zizi Mueller/Yuval Waldman/Jesse Levine/Emma Tahmizian

Customer Reviews:

Flute Americana, lyrical in a profound way.......2000-05-16

All the pieces here are great reflections on what we know as the creative center of American music, the affinity for deep languid lyricism. All of it is here within very original voices proclaiming different emotive premises. George Antheil for one, who is having a bit of a resurgence in interest now, wrote this Sonata in 1951 and well past his "bad boy" days hanging out with the avant-garde in Paris in the Twenties. This is the first recording of this work and it reveals his interest in jazzy like rhythms with the piano in not a mere passive accompaniment role, but a real player, a force with the gruff and angry-like sound. Well the piano was the instrument Antheil knew best. The flute part here, the opening Allegro shifts in an out with languid and playful melodic lines between it and the piano.Antheil's musical language was very direct,mildly atonal at times to keep tension high, placing his music materials in the forefront.Rhythm to is unrelenting. Likewise the Adagio may recall Barber's famous one. Speaking of Barber, the Canzone here is a transcription he had done, and an admirable one from his Piano Concerto. That is a colossus of a work, and the Canzone holds back the ferocious opening and closing movements. The Canzone here is a melody very plaintive, simple and memorable.You would never know its origin. The Quincy Porter Trio is a wonderful dialogue with the Violin and Viola,who contribute a plucked accompaniment very energetic and playful that has an interesting timbre against the long-sustained sound and legato ideas coming from the flute. Likewise the Hanson was a piece originally for harp and flute, but here the pianist Emma Tahmizian keeps this timbral metamorphosis in mind,playing very cleanly almost percussively in an interesting way.Hanson knows how to build and retract from his serious moods.I think his music works best in chamber situations as this one. Virgil Thomson was a fascinating creator, he to hung out with the French avant-garde in Paris in the Twenties, and was forever enamored over the innovative simplicity of Erik Satie. This unaccompanied Sonata reveals basic music materials,triads and major scales, with arpeggios filling spaces.It is overly labored and convoluted at times but this is great contrast to the simplicity.Personally I love the challenge an unaccompanied work places before the composer and this was a first in American flute literature. An interesting note in the Thomson, this recording allowed the reverberations from a large hall resound,so the work has that other-wordly quality. Thomson's work here proclaims two emotive pillars, of fast furioso quips to simple plain chant-like melodies. This is also the first recording of this work. Leo Sowerby represents the MidWestern voice here,it is one of robust rounded like lyrical expressitivity, the blend here is fine,I did think Mueller broke phrases too often, this does make the listening more interesting, but has fine sensitivity to all these works, trailing off a phrase, with very clear upper register with a taseful use of vibrato. It takes courage to travel to places you have never been, where the music takes you, and here she had formidable lyrical accomplices.

A refreshing style of writing which is entirely original........1999-04-28

Being a viola player I was especially drawn to the trio for flute, viola, and piano by Sowerby. The flute and viola meld so perfectly in timbre and, believe it or not, even in agility! The rest of the CD is very pleasant listening for people who thought all the "good music" had been composed. The perfomances are first rate, though the recorded sound is a bit unfocused but still professional.