wimpel69
04-12-2014, 08:54 AM
Sharing on these albums has ended. No more requests and no re-ups, please!
Samuel Barber, one of the most prominent and popular American composers of the mid-20th century,
wrote effectively in virtually every genre, including opera, ballet, vocal, choral, keyboard, chamber, and orchestral
music. His music is notable for its warmly Romantic lyricism, memorable melodies, and essentially conservative
harmonic style, all of which put him at odds with the prevailing modernist aesthetic of his time.
Barber was a member of the first class at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In 1928, the 17-year-
old Gian Carlo Menotti came to study at Curtis, and the two formed a personal and professional bond that
would last most of Barber's life. As a student, Barber wrote several works that have entered the repertoire,
including the song Dover Beach and Overture to the School for Scandal for orchestra. A fine singer and
pianist, as well as composer, much of his work throughout his career featured the voice.
After his graduation from Curtis, Barber wrote a string quartet, the second movement of which became
his most famous work, Adagio for Strings. Toscanini performed the Adagio with the NBC Symphony
in 1938, and Barber's career was effectively launched. His 1939 Violin Concerto further established
his international reputation. During the Second World War, Barber served in the Army Air Corps, where his
duties included writing a symphony, his second. Works that followed over the next two decades include the
Capricorn Concerto; a Cello Concerto; a Piano Sonata; Knoxville: Summer of 1915,
an extended song for voice and orchestra with a text by James Agee; Hermit Songs, for voice and piano,
using medieval texts; the chamber opera A Hand of Bridge; Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance,
taken from the ballet Cave of the Heart, written for Martha Graham, and many other works.
Barber received his first Pulitzer Prize for Vanessa, which had been commissioned by the Metropolitan
Opera, had its premiere in 1958, and was hailed as the first great American "grand opera." His 1962 Piano
Concerto won the composer his second Pulitzer Prize. The Metropolitan Opera commissioned Barber to write
an opera to inaugurate its new opera house in Lincoln Center in 1966. Antony and Cleopatra, based on
Shakespeare with a libretto by Franco Zeffirelli, proved to be a failure due at least as much to flaws in the
production as to the music. Barber was so devastated by the intensity of the animosity toward his work that
he never regained his confidence. He was temperamentally disposed to melancholy, which turned into clinical
depression, and although he continued to compose sporadically, he produced few further works of substance.
In spite of the indifference or contempt of critics and the academic establishment, Barber's expressive and
directly communicative music has never lacked support and devotion from concert audiences, and he remains
one of the best-known and beloved American composers. His Adagio for Strings has achieved iconic status
as a profound and universally understood expression of grief, and remains a testament to Barber's ability to
write music of the highest artistic standards that can also touch the heart.
This collection includes:
Symphony No.1
Violin Concerto
Cello Concerto
Piano Concerto
Capricorn Concerto
Souvenirs
Music Composed by
Samuel Barber
Played by the
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
With
Kyoko Takezawa (violin)
Steven Isserlis (cello)
John Browning (piano)
Conducted by
Leonard Slatkin
"Barber: Concertos in RCA Red Seal's "Classics Library" series is a combination of selections drawn
from two full-price discs taken from RCA's 1990s back catalog of St. Louis Symphony Orchestra recordings.
Leonard Slatkin is an ace commander of the orchestra when it comes to the specialized business of
supporting soloists. Although he has since moved on, Slatkin's relationship with the St. Louis Symphony
Orchestra was his happiest, and certainly the most productive in terms of recordings.
The disc opens with Kyoko Takezawa's delicate traversal of Barber's Violin Concerto, Op. 14. As good as
it is, it is hard to imagine how this recording could outdistance the incredible popularity of Gil Shaham's
Deutsche Grammophon recording of the same work. Takezawa's finely balanced, seamless combination
of Romantic warmth with no-nonsense Classicality is preferred to Shaham's more emotionally overwrought
reading. However, from an engineering standpoint it is obvious that the soloist could stand to be a little
louder in relation to the orchestra, a situation that remains much the same in Steven Isserlis' radiant
reading of Barber's Cello Concerto, Op. 22.
The Barber Piano Concerto, Op. 38, performance here won the Grammy award for best concerto
performance in 1991, and it is easy to see why. This was pianist John Browning's second go-round in
this work on record, the first being with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra in 1964, an explosive
and angry performance that has never appeared on CD. As with many "second chance" recordings of
great soloists in works that are still new at the first juncture, Browning has grown into the piece. Though
he retains the force and frustration that make this work Barber's most atypical concerto, Browning
mines its lyric vein even more effectively than in his first recording.Barber: Concertos is an incredible
bargain, and if one would like to have these works grouped together on a single disc, it is an ideal option."
All Music
Sharing on these albums has ended. No more requests and no re-ups, please!
Enjoy! Don't share! Buy the originals! :)
Samuel Barber, one of the most prominent and popular American composers of the mid-20th century,
wrote effectively in virtually every genre, including opera, ballet, vocal, choral, keyboard, chamber, and orchestral
music. His music is notable for its warmly Romantic lyricism, memorable melodies, and essentially conservative
harmonic style, all of which put him at odds with the prevailing modernist aesthetic of his time.
Barber was a member of the first class at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In 1928, the 17-year-
old Gian Carlo Menotti came to study at Curtis, and the two formed a personal and professional bond that
would last most of Barber's life. As a student, Barber wrote several works that have entered the repertoire,
including the song Dover Beach and Overture to the School for Scandal for orchestra. A fine singer and
pianist, as well as composer, much of his work throughout his career featured the voice.
After his graduation from Curtis, Barber wrote a string quartet, the second movement of which became
his most famous work, Adagio for Strings. Toscanini performed the Adagio with the NBC Symphony
in 1938, and Barber's career was effectively launched. His 1939 Violin Concerto further established
his international reputation. During the Second World War, Barber served in the Army Air Corps, where his
duties included writing a symphony, his second. Works that followed over the next two decades include the
Capricorn Concerto; a Cello Concerto; a Piano Sonata; Knoxville: Summer of 1915,
an extended song for voice and orchestra with a text by James Agee; Hermit Songs, for voice and piano,
using medieval texts; the chamber opera A Hand of Bridge; Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance,
taken from the ballet Cave of the Heart, written for Martha Graham, and many other works.
Barber received his first Pulitzer Prize for Vanessa, which had been commissioned by the Metropolitan
Opera, had its premiere in 1958, and was hailed as the first great American "grand opera." His 1962 Piano
Concerto won the composer his second Pulitzer Prize. The Metropolitan Opera commissioned Barber to write
an opera to inaugurate its new opera house in Lincoln Center in 1966. Antony and Cleopatra, based on
Shakespeare with a libretto by Franco Zeffirelli, proved to be a failure due at least as much to flaws in the
production as to the music. Barber was so devastated by the intensity of the animosity toward his work that
he never regained his confidence. He was temperamentally disposed to melancholy, which turned into clinical
depression, and although he continued to compose sporadically, he produced few further works of substance.
In spite of the indifference or contempt of critics and the academic establishment, Barber's expressive and
directly communicative music has never lacked support and devotion from concert audiences, and he remains
one of the best-known and beloved American composers. His Adagio for Strings has achieved iconic status
as a profound and universally understood expression of grief, and remains a testament to Barber's ability to
write music of the highest artistic standards that can also touch the heart.
This collection includes:
Symphony No.1
Violin Concerto
Cello Concerto
Piano Concerto
Capricorn Concerto
Souvenirs
Music Composed by
Samuel Barber
Played by the
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
With
Kyoko Takezawa (violin)
Steven Isserlis (cello)
John Browning (piano)
Conducted by
Leonard Slatkin
"Barber: Concertos in RCA Red Seal's "Classics Library" series is a combination of selections drawn
from two full-price discs taken from RCA's 1990s back catalog of St. Louis Symphony Orchestra recordings.
Leonard Slatkin is an ace commander of the orchestra when it comes to the specialized business of
supporting soloists. Although he has since moved on, Slatkin's relationship with the St. Louis Symphony
Orchestra was his happiest, and certainly the most productive in terms of recordings.
The disc opens with Kyoko Takezawa's delicate traversal of Barber's Violin Concerto, Op. 14. As good as
it is, it is hard to imagine how this recording could outdistance the incredible popularity of Gil Shaham's
Deutsche Grammophon recording of the same work. Takezawa's finely balanced, seamless combination
of Romantic warmth with no-nonsense Classicality is preferred to Shaham's more emotionally overwrought
reading. However, from an engineering standpoint it is obvious that the soloist could stand to be a little
louder in relation to the orchestra, a situation that remains much the same in Steven Isserlis' radiant
reading of Barber's Cello Concerto, Op. 22.
The Barber Piano Concerto, Op. 38, performance here won the Grammy award for best concerto
performance in 1991, and it is easy to see why. This was pianist John Browning's second go-round in
this work on record, the first being with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra in 1964, an explosive
and angry performance that has never appeared on CD. As with many "second chance" recordings of
great soloists in works that are still new at the first juncture, Browning has grown into the piece. Though
he retains the force and frustration that make this work Barber's most atypical concerto, Browning
mines its lyric vein even more effectively than in his first recording.Barber: Concertos is an incredible
bargain, and if one would like to have these works grouped together on a single disc, it is an ideal option."
All Music
Sharing on these albums has ended. No more requests and no re-ups, please!
Enjoy! Don't share! Buy the originals! :)