The American Masters may be an invidious title considering that two of the three works here are world premieres, and one composer, 1977-born Mason Bates, is hardly a household word. But the three composers represent a chain of influence and a thread in American music that has gradually emerged as critically important: tonal in orientation, Romantic in aesthetic, and yet not really describable with the word "conservative." The booklet notes, well worth reading for his take on the story of the genesis of Samuel Barber's ...
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The American Masters may be an invidious title considering that two of the three works here are world premieres, and one composer, 1977-born Mason Bates, is hardly a household word. But the three composers represent a chain of influence and a thread in American music that has gradually emerged as critically important: tonal in orientation, Romantic in aesthetic, and yet not really describable with the word "conservative." The booklet notes, well worth reading for his take on the story of the genesis of Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto, Op. 14 (compare it with the Wikipedia version to which he refers), are by John Corigliano, who was an informal student of Barber and a teacher to Bates. Corigliano's own contribution is the small Lullaby for Natalie, dedicated to the infant daughter of violinist Anne Akiko Meyers. It's placed between the two major works (not at the close as the booklet says), both of which are well worth hearing. Meyers' reading of the Barber concerto is spot on in the difficult finale,...
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