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Poems for Piano
Gould · Persichetti · Diamond · Bloch
Mirian Conti
pianist
Morton Gould (1913-1995)
Born in New York, Morton Gould was known primarily for his orchestral works, especially his Latin American Symphonette, American Symphonette and Interplay (which was choreographed by Jerome Robbins). His works have a distinctly American flavor and even his Pieces of China, written for solo piano, could be characterized as an American's impressions of China. These pieces composed in 1985, were dedicated to choreographer Jacques D'Amboise and performed at Madison Square Garden for an international event. This work exhibits an almost cinematique character, and as in most of Gould's compositions, his humor, his love for jazzy rhythms and his idiomatic characterizations are clearly evident. Mr. Gould was for many years President of ASCAP while remaining an active composer and conductor until his death.
Vincent Persichetti: (1915-1987) Born in Philadelphia, Persichetti was one of the most distinguished American composers of recent times. He was a member of the Faculty of both The Juilliard School and the Philadelphia Conservatory for several decades. He composed numerous symphonies, a substantial amount of chamber music, and keyboard works including the three volumes of Poems for Piano. Volumes 1 and 2 were published in 1947, and volume 3, in 1981. The titles of each of these 16 character pieces are drawn from single lines of various poems, and as in his orchestral work Night Dances, each piece reflects the single line of poetry rather than the poem as a whole. Persichetti's highly original compositional style juxtaposes a wide diversity of emotional states in a tightly woven musical structure. Color, rhythm, beauty of tone and a lyricism that is uniquely Persichetti's permeate these works.
David Diamond
A tremendously prolific composer, David Diamond was born in Rochester, New York in 1915 and was on the faculty of the Juilliard School where I had the honor of knowing him and of performing his Second Sonatina dedicated to me. Fifty-two years separate the first and second Sonatinas for Piano. Sonatina No. 1, composed in 1935, was dedicated to the poet Alfred Kreymborg and his wife Dorothy. In three short movements, the first is a long-lined cantilena in ABA form; the second, an invention; and the third, a rondino. Sonatina No. 2, composed in 1987 is in two movements: the first in a modified Sonata-Allegro structure, and the second, a miniature perpetuum mobile. Mr. Diamond is known for such works as his incidental music for Romeo and Juliet, his Symphony No. 4 and his Rounds for String Orchestra. He has produced more than 10 symphonies, numerous concerti, chamber and vocal works.
Ernst Bloch (1880-1959)
A naturalized American, Ernst Bloch was born in Geneva, Switzerland and settled in the United States in 1917. In 1920, he became Director of the Cleveland American Institute of Music. From 1925 to 1930, he was the Director of the San Francisco Conservatory and from 1940 until his retirement, Professor of Music at the University of California, Berkeley. Bloch is best known for his orchestral works such as Schelomo and Sacred Service. His two violin sonatas were made famous by the classic Heifetz recordings. Poems of the Sea, written in 1922, is one of his most frequently performed solo piano works and reflects Bloch's masterful treatment of rhythm and color, producing profound feelings and a rich harmonic palette. Bloch's approach is very impressionistic. The three movements are: "Waves," "Chanty," and "At Sea," and they so clearly project the atmosphere the titles suggest that no further explanation is necessary.
Mirian Conti
Sources for Vincent Persichetti's Poems for Piano
Volume 1
1. Unroll the flicker's rousing drum" Louis Untermeyer
Poem: "First Words Before Spring" · Book: Modern American Poetry (ed. Untermeyer) · Publisher: Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York
2. "Soft is the collied night" James Elroy Flecker
Poem: "Fountains" · Book: The Collected Poems of J.E. Flecker · Pub lisher: S.J. Reginald Saunders & Co., Toronto
3. "Gather for festival bright weed and purple shell" William Watson
Poem: "Songs from Cyprus" · Book: Modern American Poetry (ed. Untermeyer) · Publisher: Harcourt, brace and Co., New York
4. "Wake subtler dreams, and touch me nigh to tears" William Watson
Poem: "The Frontier" · Book: Odes and Other Poems · Publisher: The Macmillan Company, New York
5. "Ravished lute, sing to her virgin ears" Robert Fitzgerald
Poem: "Song after Campion" · Book: Poems · Publisher: Arrow Editions, New York
6. "Whose thin fraud I wink at privily" William Watson
Poem: "The Mock Self" · Book: The Collected Poems of William Watson · Publisher: Thomas Nelson and Sons, New York
Volume II
7. "And warm winds spilled fragrance into her solitudes" Edmond Kowalewski
Poem: "Change" · Book: Deaf Walls · Publisher: The Symphonist Press, Philadelphia
8. "To whose more clear than crystal voice the frost had joined a crystal spell" Léonie Adams
Poem: "Home Coming" · Book: Those Not Elect · Publisher: Robert M. McBride and Co., New York
9. "Sleep, weary mind; dream, heart's desire" Edna St. Vincent Millay
Poem: "There are no islands any more" · Book: Make Bright the Arrows · Publisher: Harper and Brothers, New York
10. "Dust in sunlight, and memory in corners" T.S. Eliot
Poem: "A Song for Simeon" · Book: Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot · Publisher: Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York
11. "Make me drunken with deep red torrents of joy" John Gould Fletcher
Poem: "Autumnal Clouds" · Book: Modern American Poets (Conrad Aiken) · Publisher: The Modern Library (Random House), New York
Volume III
12. "Rear its frondings sighing in aetherial folds" Hart Crane
Poem: "Royal Palm" · Book: Modern American Poetry · Publisher: Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York
13. "Listen! Can you hear the antic melody of fear those two anxious feet are playing?" Walter Prude
Unpublished
14. "Puffed out and marching upon a blue sky" Amy Lowell
Poem: "Lilacs" · Book: Modern American Poetry · Publisher: Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York
15. "And hung like those top jewels of the night" Léonie Adams
Poem: "Twilit Revelation" · Book: Modern American Poetry · Publisher: Harcourt, Brace and Co., New York
16. "Each gay dunce shall lend a hand" John Trumbull
Poem: "The Country Clown" · Book: An Anthology of American Poetry (ed. Alfred Kreymborg) ·Publisher: Tudor Publishing Co., New York
Mirian Conti
The Argentine pianist Mirian Conti enjoys a growing reputation as a musician whose performances combine technical brilliance with striking originality and artistic insight. Stylistically assured in a wide range of repertoire, Ms. Conti is considered a leading exponent of Spanish music; and her rare ability to communicate passion and excitement when playing contemporary scores has won the admiration of leading American and Argentine composers such as Diamond, Ramey, Bowles, Persichetti, Gould, Lees, Broeders, White, Zyman, etc. She premiered Lalo Schifrin's Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles. She was invited by the French Cultural Center in Tangier, Morocco to perform a concert in homage to Paul Bowles.
Ms. Conti studied with Genny Blech in Buenos Aires and continued her musical education in New York, earning her Bachelor's and Master's degrees as an award winning William Petscheck Scholarship student at The Juilliard School, where her teachers were Richard Fabre and Josef Raieff. She has also studied with Edmundo Lopez and Freda Rosenblatt in New York. The pianist has made solo, orchestral and chamber appearances at Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (debut in 1987), and has performed at numerous concert halls throughout the world, including the Teatro Colón in her native Argentina. In 1989, she was awarded a special prize as the best performer of Spanish music in the International Pilar Bayona Piano Competition in Zaragoza, Spain. In 1995, she was awarded the Andrés Segovia-José Miguel Ruiz Morales Prize as the best performer of Spanish music in the XXXVIII Santiago de Compostela International University Course on Spanish Music, Spain. She has appeared with the Jupiter Symphony and the American Composers Orchestra in New York City.
Conti has recorded several compact discs featuring works by Mexican, Argentine, and Spanish composers for the Antilles
New Direction Label of Island Records. Her compact disc on the Koch International Classics label features unusual piano works by Joaquín Turina and has been enthusiastically received by critics. Her lecture-recitals and masterclasses on the music of Spain were presented at Oberlin College, Manhattan School of Music, William Paterson College and at the National Conservatory López Buchardo in Buenos Aires and the Simar Festival in Cali, Colombia. Ms. Conti was the Talent Coordinator for the 1998 AT&T Latino Arts Festival in Queens, New York.
In recognition of her extraordinary talent, a scholarship honoring Mirian Conti has now been established at The Juilliard School by the Edwin Bachman Estate.
Produced by G. Richard Glasford and Jean-Pierre Weiller-Letourneur ·Digitally recorded by Tim Martyn, Classic Sound, New York City, July, 1989 ·Mastering by Tim Martyn, Classic Sound, New York City, April, 1998
Poems for Piano
Mirian Conti, piano
Morton Gould
Pieces of China (1985) (14:22)
The great wall (4:01)
Fable (2:16)
China blue (1:34)
Puppets (1:12)
Slow Dance-Lotus (2:17)
China chips (2:56)
David Diamond
Sonatina No. 1 (1935) (4:39)
Largo assai (2:33)
Allegretto (1:02)
Allegro vivace (1:02)
Sonatina No. 2 (1987), dedicated to Mirian (2:43)
Andante quasi Allegretto (1:42)
Allegro moderato (1:00)
Ernst Bloch
Poems of the Sea (10:37)
Waves (3:53)
Chanty (2:43)
At sea (3:59)
Vincent Persichetti
Poems for Piano, Vol. 1, Op. 4 (7:38)
Unroll the flicker's rousing drum (1:07)
Soft is the collied night (1:42)
Gather for festival bright weed and purple shell (:46)
Wake subtler dreams, and touch me nigh to tears (1:49)
Ravished lute, sing to her virgin ears (1:16)
Whose thin fraud I wink at privily (:56)
Poems for Piano, Vol. 2, Op. 5 (7:25)
And warms winds spilled fragrance into her solitudes (2:02)
To whose more clear than crystal voice
the frost had joined a crystal spell (1:02)
Sleep, weary mind; dream, heart's desire (1:34)
Dust in sunlight, and memory in corners (1:37)
Make me drunken with deep red torrents of joy (1:05)
Poems for Piano, Vol. 3, Op. 14 (13:17)
Rear its frondings sighing in aetherial folds (2:59)
Listen! Can you hear the antic melody of fear
those two anxious feet are playing? (2:48)
Puffed out and marching upon a blue sky (1:22)
And hunged like those top jewels of the night (3:40)
Each gay dunce shall lend a hand (2:19)
Total Time = 61:06
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