Modern Piano Works
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Igor Stravinsky, Peter Lieberson, Stefan Wolpe
Label: New World
Magazine Review Date: 4/1987
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: NW344-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (3) Bagatelles |
Peter Lieberson, Composer
Peter Lieberson, Composer Peter Serkin, Piano |
| Serenade |
Igor Stravinsky, Composer
Igor Stravinsky, Composer Peter Serkin, Piano |
| Sonata for Piano |
Igor Stravinsky, Composer
Igor Stravinsky, Composer Peter Serkin, Piano |
| Pastorale |
Stefan Wolpe, Composer
Peter Serkin, Piano Stefan Wolpe, Composer |
| Form IV: Broken Sequences |
Stefan Wolpe, Composer
Peter Serkin, Piano Stefan Wolpe, Composer |
| (4) Studies on Basic Rows, Movement: Passacaglia |
Stefan Wolpe, Composer
Peter Serkin, Piano Stefan Wolpe, Composer |
Composer or Director: Igor Stravinsky, Peter Lieberson, Stefan Wolpe
Label: New World
Magazine Review Date: 4/1987
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: NW344
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (3) Bagatelles |
Peter Lieberson, Composer
Peter Lieberson, Composer Peter Serkin, Piano |
| Serenade |
Igor Stravinsky, Composer
Igor Stravinsky, Composer Peter Serkin, Piano |
| Sonata for Piano |
Igor Stravinsky, Composer
Igor Stravinsky, Composer Peter Serkin, Piano |
| Pastorale |
Stefan Wolpe, Composer
Peter Serkin, Piano Stefan Wolpe, Composer |
| Form IV: Broken Sequences |
Stefan Wolpe, Composer
Peter Serkin, Piano Stefan Wolpe, Composer |
| (4) Studies on Basic Rows, Movement: Passacaglia |
Stefan Wolpe, Composer
Peter Serkin, Piano Stefan Wolpe, Composer |
Author: Arnold Whittall
The last item on this disc provides its principal justification. Stefan Wolpe's music is rarely recorded, and the ''Passacaglia'' is a remarkable example of his work. It may not be so tightly disciplined or so stylistically consistent as the much later Form IV: Broken Sequences, but it is distinctive, absorbing, and striking for its date—assuming that the later revision di d not amount to major surgery. The piece reveals Wolpe as a worthy heir to his mentor Busoni, with all that implies of grandiose eclecticism, and Peter Serkin revels in its taxing, flamboyant textures. Serkin effortlessly sustains the gradually evolving argument of the ''Passacaglia'', and its two huge climaxes are contained without distortion by a recording which is not otherwise particularly successful by modern standards. In addtition, Wolpe's early Pastorale—light at the outset, but gradually clouding over—and the quirky but never arbitrary sound-geometry of Form IV are also of the greatest interest, and very well performed.
I was less taken with Serkin's Stravinsky. In both works he seems to be cross-examining the music for evidence of that 'expressiveness' the composer affected to despise, only to discover triumphantly in the finale of the Sonata that energy and shape are all. In general the Serenade is too severe, too deliberate, the Sonata—until the finale—too weighty: and the recording leaves one very conscious of the space round the piano. Serkin is more at home in Peter Lieberson's Bagatelles. Having failed to respond to this composer's sprawling Piano Concerto (New World NW325, 6/86) I hoped to find him more appealing on a smaller scale. I can't claim to have been converted by these rather desultory pieces, but Serkin plays them with abundant virtuosity, and is particularly persuasive in the fanciful lyricism of the second, ''Spontaneous Songs''.'
I was less taken with Serkin's Stravinsky. In both works he seems to be cross-examining the music for evidence of that 'expressiveness' the composer affected to despise, only to discover triumphantly in the finale of the Sonata that energy and shape are all. In general the Serenade is too severe, too deliberate, the Sonata—until the finale—too weighty: and the recording leaves one very conscious of the space round the piano. Serkin is more at home in Peter Lieberson's Bagatelles. Having failed to respond to this composer's sprawling Piano Concerto (New World NW325, 6/86) I hoped to find him more appealing on a smaller scale. I can't claim to have been converted by these rather desultory pieces, but Serkin plays them with abundant virtuosity, and is particularly persuasive in the fanciful lyricism of the second, ''Spontaneous Songs''.'
Modern Piano Works
Modern Piano Works
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