As a broad survey of William Albright's piano music, covering a 30-year span of his eclectic and prodigious creativity, this disc presents a compelling portrait of the composer at his best. Albright absorbed many influences into his personal language, though he was always tasteful and subtle in handling his materials. When he played with different styles and used musical references in his work -- never direct quotations -- it was always with high purpose and careful preparation, and without parody. The Five Chromatic Dances ...
Read More
As a broad survey of William Albright's piano music, covering a 30-year span of his eclectic and prodigious creativity, this disc presents a compelling portrait of the composer at his best. Albright absorbed many influences into his personal language, though he was always tasteful and subtle in handling his materials. When he played with different styles and used musical references in his work -- never direct quotations -- it was always with high purpose and careful preparation, and without parody. The Five Chromatic Dances (1976) marked a major achievement both in terms of successfully incorporating the models of Beethoven, Chopin, and Debussy into a modern context and in exploiting the full range of the piano. Pianoagogo (1965-1966), despite its allusions to lounge piano style, is more subdued and abstract than its humorous title suggests. In Sphaera (1985), for piano and computer-generated tape, the processed sounds of a Bösendorfer extend the piano's sound world to a cosmic level, reverberating,...
Read Less
Portions of content provided by Rovi Corporation. © 2024 Rovi Corporation.