George Walker had a long career and perhaps inevitably attracted the "Dean of African American Composers" moniker, but it is also true that as his successors have gained traction, his own music has been somewhat less often heard. The Albany label has done yeoman's service in documenting his work, but this beautifully played (and beautifully recorded at Oktaven Studio) set of Walker's piano sonatas by pianist Steven Beck is especially valuable. The sonatas trace Walker's development as a composer, from a sort of post-Copland ...
Read More
George Walker had a long career and perhaps inevitably attracted the "Dean of African American Composers" moniker, but it is also true that as his successors have gained traction, his own music has been somewhat less often heard. The Albany label has done yeoman's service in documenting his work, but this beautifully played (and beautifully recorded at Oktaven Studio) set of Walker's piano sonatas by pianist Steven Beck is especially valuable. The sonatas trace Walker's development as a composer, from a sort of post-Copland style through an approach to serialism (he only rarely adopted it wholesale, but the mark of Webernian economy is all over the second and third sonatas here), back to a broader free atonality deepened by rigor. Walker generally resisted the use of African American vernacular material in his essentially modernist style, but he might then introduce it when it is least expected, in entirely original ways. Listen to the Ivesian quotation of Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child in...
Read Less
Add this copy of Five Piano Sonatas to cart. $26.56, new condition, Sold by newtownvideo rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from huntingdon valley, PA, UNITED STATES, published 2022 by Bridge.
Add this copy of Walker: Five Piano Sonatas [Steven Beck] [Bridge to cart. $36.24, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2022 by Bridge Records.
Portions of content provided by Rovi Corporation. © 2024 Rovi Corporation.