Concord String Quartet; Mark Sokol, violin; Andrew Jennings, violin; John Kochanowski, viola; Norman Fischer, cello; Aeolian Quartet of Sarah Lawrence College; New York Philharmonic; Werner Torkanowsky, Conductor
Born in Paterson, N.J., on July 5, 1918, George Rochberg began his formal studies in composition at the Mannes School of Music and after serving as an infantry lieutenant in World War II, resumed them again at the Curtis Institute of Music. Beginning in 1948, he taught at the Curtis Institute. In 1960 he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he served as chairman of the Department of Music until 1968. He retired from teaching in 1983 as Emeritus Annenberg Professor of the Humanities. Rochberg has received numerous awards and citations including honorary degrees in music and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is the recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation. In 1979 his String Quartet No. 4 received first prize in the Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards.
Three major trends of Rochberg’s early career are represented on the present disc. The dissonant but not yet serial style of his works up to the early 1950s is represented in the First String Quartet, begun in Rome in 1950 and completed in Philadelphia two years later. The dark Contra mortem et tempus (Against Death and Time), written shortly after the death of the composer’s twenty-year-old son in 1964, is one of the most potent of his “assemblages”—with its quotations of works by Boulez, Ives, Varèse, Berio, and by Rochberg himself. Finally the Second Symphony (1956) represents the full flowering of his serial mastery; it remains one of the most eloquent expressions of the serialist idea, and one of the undervalued achievements of twentieth-century American symphonic music.
This title, originally issued on the CRI label, is now available as a burn-on-demand CD (CD-R) or download in MP3/320, FLAC or WAV formats. CD-Rs come in a protective sleeve; no print booklet or jewel case included. Liner notes are accessible via the link above.
Music of George Rochberg, Vol. 1
| MP3/320 | $9.99 | |
| FLAC | $9.99 | |
| WAV | $9.99 | |
| CD-R | $9.99 |
A *.pdf of the notes may be accessed here free of charge.
Track Listing
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String Quartet No. 1: I. Molto adagio
George Rochberg
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String Quartet No. 1: II. Vivace
George Rochberg
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String Quartet No. 1: III. Molto tranquillo
George Rochberg
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String Quartet No. 1: IV. Allegro energico
George Rochberg
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Contra Mortem Et Tempus
George Rochberg
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Symphony No. 2: I. Declamando
George Rochberg
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Symphony No. 2: II. Allegro scherzoso
George Rochberg
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Symphony No. 2: III. Molto tranquillo
George Rochberg
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Symphony No. 2: IV. Tempo primo, ma incalzando
George Rochberg
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