The Columbia Masterworks and Epic recordings utilized on Music & Arts' Leon Kirchner: Historic Recordings are every bit as "historic" as crumbling old 1950s tapes of Bruno Walter or Hermann Scherchen. In challenging received notions about what constitutes a "historic" recording, Music & Arts deserves credit for realizing that there is a need for restoration of early contemporary music, and for answering the call with the same care and attention to which it devoted to a recording of one of "the old masters." American ...
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The Columbia Masterworks and Epic recordings utilized on Music & Arts' Leon Kirchner: Historic Recordings are every bit as "historic" as crumbling old 1950s tapes of Bruno Walter or Hermann Scherchen. In challenging received notions about what constitutes a "historic" recording, Music & Arts deserves credit for realizing that there is a need for restoration of early contemporary music, and for answering the call with the same care and attention to which it devoted to a recording of one of "the old masters." American composer Leon Kirchner came of age in the late '40s, when the tonal language of Viennese expressionism, including its component of serial technique, began to assert itself among serious musicians in America. In a post-modern world, most of this work finds itself disenfranchised, its proponents either decrying their neglect publicly or trying to slip out of the spotlight with a sort of disconcerted grace. In Kirchner's case, either option is unfair; witness the jazziness and rhythmic...
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