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George
Walker
Winner of the
1996
Pulitzer Prize
in Music
Plays
Bach,
Schumann,
Chopin
and Poulenc
"He will rank with the outstanding musicians of our time"
Het Vrije Volke, Amsterdam
George Walker
George Walker was born in Washington, D.C. in 1922. He began to take piano lessons when he was five years old. After graduating from Oberlin College with a Mus. B. degree at age eighteen, he continued his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music with Rudolf Serkin in piano and Rosario Scalero in composition. In 1945, he made his acclaimed New York debut in Town Hall that was sponsored by Mr. and Mrs. Efrem Zimbalist. Two weeks later, he appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra as the soloist in the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 with Eugene Ormandy conducting.
He appeared subsequently with other major ensembles in performances of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, the 4th and 5th Piano Concertos of Beethoven, the Tschaikowsky Piano Concerto No. 1, and the Franck Variations for Piano and Orchestra. In 1950, he became the first black instrumentalist to obtain major concert management. In 1953, he became the first black artist to make a major concert tour of Europe where he played in seven countries - Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and England with outstanding success.
His compositions have been performed by virtually every major orchestra in the United States. Five of his works have been played by the New York Philharmonic which commissioned his Concerto for Cello and Orchestra. He has also received commissions from the Cleveland Orchestra, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the New Jersey Symphony, AT&T and many other organizations. He has published over 75 works.
In April of 1996, George Walker received the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his composition, Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra. This work was commissioned by the Boston Symphony with a grant from AT&T. The premiere was given on February 1, 1996 with Seiji Ozawa conducting the Boston Symphony and Faye Robinson as the soprano soloist.
The composer has provided the following notes on the program.
The works included in this program were, with the exception of the Nocturne in F Sharp Major by Chopin, first performed publicly by me when I was in my late teens. The Kreisleriana of Schumann and the four Etudes of Chopin were played on my Town Hall debut recital in 1945. The selection of these works is part of a continuing retrospective that began with the release of my first recording from Albany Records, George Walker in Recital.
The Prelude No. V in D Major from the Well-Tempered Clavier of Bach exhibits extraordinary economy in a perpetual mobile style that terminates in a brief cadenza. The persistent motivic usage of two whole steps followed by a downward leap of a sixth in the right hand permeates the figuration in a predictable manner. The succeeding Fugue combines an initially embellished tone with the stately dotted rhythm associated with the French Overture.
The eight parts that comprise the Kreisleriana of Robert Schumann offer myriad contrasts in mood ranging from the passionate to the tender, the agitated to the playful or wistful. Each section is a character piece masterfully constructed - an aspect of great Romantic piano music that is too often neglected in discussions of this literature.
The four Etudes of Chopin - C Sharp Minor, G Flat Major and E Flat Minor Op. 10 present a consistency of figuration that is unique, i.e. the use of the pentatonic scale near the end of the G Flat Major Etude. The Etude in E Flat Minor, a melancholic poem, is also a three voice contrapuntal study. The octave Etude, Op. 25 has an unusual A-B-A structure in which
the melodic content of the middle section is expressed also in octaves.
The Chopin Nocturne, Op. 15 No. 2 utilizes elegant embellishments to its bel canto line. It concludes with a codetta based on a tonic pedal point. The Toccata of Francis Poulenc exemplifies the whimsicality and melodic charm that coexist in much of his music.
George Walker
Producer and Engineer: George Walker
Editor: Jeff Baust and John Newton of Sound Mirror
Recording equipment: Steinway D piano, Nagra D recorder, Neumann M-149 microphones, Baton cables, Yankee Audio speakers
Piano technician: Sylvester Sammartine
This recording is dedicated to my sons, Gregory and Ian Walker.
Recorded December 1996 in Montclair, New Jersey.
HDCD® and High Definition Compatible Digital® are registered trademarks of Pacific Microsonics, Inc. Patent No. 5,479,168.
George Walker
J.S. Bach
Prelude and Fugue in D Major, W.T.C. No. 5
Prelude (1:22)
Fugue (2:16)
Robert Schumann
Kreisleriana, Op. 16
Ausserst bewegt (2:51)
Sehr inning und nicht zu rasch (9:18)
Intermezzo I
Tempo I
Intermezzo II
Langsamer-Adagio-Erstes tempo
Sehr aufgeregt (4:34)
Etwas langsamer
Erstes tempo-noch-schneller
Sehr langsam-bewegter-Erstes tempo (3:45)
Sehr lebhaft (3:28)
Sehr langsam-Etwas bewegter-Erstes tempo (4:27)
Sehr rasch-noch schneller (2:18)
Schnell und spielend (3:42)
Mit aller Kraft
Frederic Chopin
Four Etudes
C Sharp Minor, Op. 10 No. 4 (2:27)
G Flat Major, Op. 10 No. 5 (1:52)
E Flat Minor, Op. 10 No. 6 (3:25)
B Minor, Op. 25 No. 10 (4:31)
Nocturne in F Sharp Major,
Op. 15 No. 2 (3:45)
Francis Poulenc
Toccata (2:19)
HDCD® and High Definition Compatible Digital® are registered trademarks of Pacific Microsonics, Inc. Patent No. 5,479,168.
Total Time = 57:40
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