Thanks to several well-received recordings of his symphonies in the 1990s, George Chadwick's music has enjoyed a modest revival, though nothing yet like a full rehabilitation. Pianist Peter Kairoff and Albany no doubt hope that Chadwick's late Romantic piano pieces will garner further attention and keep the revival alive, but the music itself seems an unpromising mélange of sentimental parlor pieces and children's entertainments of little originality. Redolent of fin de siècle perfume, such pieces as the Three Waltzes ...
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Thanks to several well-received recordings of his symphonies in the 1990s, George Chadwick's music has enjoyed a modest revival, though nothing yet like a full rehabilitation. Pianist Peter Kairoff and Albany no doubt hope that Chadwick's late Romantic piano pieces will garner further attention and keep the revival alive, but the music itself seems an unpromising mélange of sentimental parlor pieces and children's entertainments of little originality. Redolent of fin de siècle perfume, such pieces as the Three Waltzes (1890), the Two Caprices (1888), the Chanson Orientale, and the Nocturne in D flat (both 1895) have a surface charm, but they seem contrived and lacking in emotion. More palatable, at least for the variety of their moods, are the Five Pieces for Piano (1905) and the Six Characteristic Pieces, Op. 7 (1882), where Chadwick displays a lighter touch, a more humorous tone, and much less dependence on his chief models, Chopin and Fauré. Kairoff deserves credit for giving these...
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Add this copy of American Character: Piano Music to cart. $8.45, like new condition, Sold by Streetlight_Records rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Santa Cruz, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2005 by Albany Records.
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