CD 7464: Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn Piano Trios June 25, 2008
Posted by Angela Mace in : Uncategorized , add a comment
The Atlantis Trio’s recording of the Mendelssohns’ Piano Trios is well worth the trip to our Media Center to borrow. Both Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn were superb pianists, which is apparent in the parts they wrote for piano in their chamber works. The delicately constructed textures, melting melodic lines, and flashes of technical virtuosity are handled with ease and apparent enjoyment by the fortepianist, Penelope Crawford. She is joined by two equally talented colleagues, Jaap Schröder on the violin, and Enid Sutherland on the cello. Their strong partnership balances beautifully with the impressive piano part, creating a powerful and dramatic rendering of these beloved chamber works from the first note to the last. Included in the CD case is a second CD containing a fascinating discussion by the performers about the music and their performance decisions.
This item is available in the Media Center general collection: CD 7464
New CD of works by Stephen Jaffe June 24, 2008
Posted by Tom Moore in : Uncategorized , add a comment
Just released is the new CD of works by Stephen Jaffe on Bridge.
Early Music America June 24, 2008
Posted by Tom Moore in : Uncategorized , add a comment
Anonymous 4
What is early music? most people think of Bach as the dividing line between the “standard repertoire” and music which is “of historical interest”. It is the latter, music which fell out of the general body of music frequently performed, that we label as “early music”. This is the music which may be studied and rediscovered by musicologists or music historians. Duke’s Collegium Musicum has as its mission the performance of these forgotten masterpieces.
Early music came to be so popular among musicians and audiences in the USA by the 1980s that musicians formed an organization to bring together performers, scholars, and listeners - Early Music America. Unlike many journals in music, targeted at musicologists, the magazine of Early Music America is intended for the listening public, with news about performers and performing organizations, reviews of recent CDs, essays, and more.
You can find out more about the organization at their website, and read the Early Music magazine online or in print in a comfortable chair at the Music Library.
Rediscoveries: Amy Beach by Adrienne Block June 23, 2008
Posted by Angela Mace in : Uncategorized, popular , add a comment
Amy Beach: Passionate Victorian (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) by Adrienne Block has been in the collection for ten years now, but it is still a prime source for information about the remarkable American composer, Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (1867-1944). What’s more, Block writes with an engaging style and fresh perspective that has kept this reader riveted this summer. Block traces the Marcy and Cheney family histories in New England, explores Amy Beach’s early struggles as an extremely talented child with limited means, explains the effect her marriage to Dr. H. H. A. Beach had on both her social status and artistic freedom, and follows her life long struggle with prejudices against female composers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Don’t miss the “Catalog of Works” in the appendix, which displays the impressive breadth of Amy Beach’s accomplishments, from piano miniatures and songs to orchestral works and a piano concerto, as well as a mass and other choral works (sacred and secular). My personal favorites are her lovely solo keyboard works (many of which reflect her fascination with bird calls) and her dark and passionate Piano Quintet in F-sharp Minor, Op. 67.
This item is available in the general collection: ML 410 .B36 B56 1998
New Books Shelf (June 18-25, 2008) June 19, 2008
Posted by Angela Mace in : Uncategorized , add a comment
The latest installment in the Eastman Studies in Music series is on our new books shelf this week: Beyond ‘The Art of Finger Dexterity’: Reassessing Carl Czerny, edited by distinguished Duke Department of Music Ph.D., David Gramit. Stop by and have a look through this collection of essays exploring the life and art of Carl Czerny, hidden for generations behind his widely used technical exercises for piano. You will find essays on everything from Czerny’s cultural circle in Vienna to his promotion of Beethoven’s works, as well as studies of performance practice issues and analysis of Czerny’s own works from string quartets to church music.
This item will be available for circulation on June 25, 2008.
ML 410 .C99 B48 2008
