Liner Notes
Cat. No. NWCRL319
Release Date: 2010-02-15
Harvey Sollberger, flute; Fred Sherry, cello; Charles Wuorinen, piano; Matthew Raimondi, violin; Jean Dupouy, viola; Michael Rudiakov, cello; Robert Miller, piano
Harvey Sollberger writes:
“My Divertimento for Flute, Cello And Piano was composed during the summer of 1970 for the Trio of the Group for Contemporary Music. It was first performed on Sept. 21, 1970 by that ensemble in Nicosia, Cyprus. The work is in seven movements, each quite different from the others as regards such factors as length, texture and continuity, though recurrent motives do surface occasionally. In composing the Divertimento, I tried to create movements—some almost no more than moments—that could be heard as complete in themselves while yet functioning as integral components in the ensemble of movements which is the whole piece.
“As to its overall spirit or mood, I think that the epigraph by Wallace Stevens on the title page—‘that lucid souvenir of the past, the divertimento’—is a sufficient clue to my own attitude.
"I composed my Impromptu for Piano to celebrate the virtuosity of my friend and colleague, Charles Wuorinen. The piece was finished in 1968 and first performed on March 18th of that year in a concert of the Group for Contemporary Music in New York.
"The Impromptu is unique among my works of the past ten years in that it is the result of a continual compositional improvisation—in this it is unlike my other works which have involved varying degrees of precompositional determination of basic materials and their transformations. The compositional process embodied here, then, is perhaps akin to what Paul Klee, in speaking of his sketches, called ‘taking the time for a walk,’ the line here being an expanding and contracting one relative to the work’s thickening and thinning textures.
Fred Lerdahl writes:
“The String Trio was composed in 1965-66 while I was a graduate student at Princeton. It received its premiere at Tanglewood in 1966; subsequently I revised it, and the Composers Quartet first performed the work in its final form at Princeton in 1967. In conceiving my Trio I was influenced by Schoenberg’s String Trio in the writing for strings and in the formal conception of juxtaposing relatively short, highly contrasting sections within one large movement.
“The Piano Fantasy was written in 1964 during my senior year at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin. The previous summer, while at Tanglewood. I had heard music utilizing sounds produced inside the piano. In my Fantasy I attempted to incorporate these timbres integrally by restricting their function primarily to cadential articulation.
“These two compositions are the earliest by which I care to be represented. The pitch structures of both derive from the same semicombinatorial—but unordered—hexachord. In subsequent compositions I turned to other modes of pitch organization.”
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. Full liner notes are accessible via the link above.
Harvey Sollberger writes:
“My Divertimento for Flute, Cello And Piano was composed during the summer of 1970 for the Trio of the Group for Contemporary Music. It was first performed on Sept. 21, 1970 by that ensemble in Nicosia, Cyprus. The work is in seven movements, each quite different from the others as regards such factors as length, texture and continuity, though recurrent motives do surface occasionally. In composing the Divertimento, I tried to create movements—some almost no more than moments—that could be heard as complete in themselves while yet functioning as integral components in the ensemble of movements which is the whole piece.
“As to its overall spirit or mood, I think that the epigraph by Wallace Stevens on the title page—‘that lucid souvenir of the past, the divertimento’—is a sufficient clue to my own attitude.
"I composed my Impromptu for Piano to celebrate the virtuosity of my friend and colleague, Charles Wuorinen. The piece was finished in 1968 and first performed on March 18th of that year in a concert of the Group for Contemporary Music in New York.
"The Impromptu is unique among my works of the past ten years in that it is the result of a continual compositional improvisation—in this it is unlike my other works which have involved varying degrees of precompositional determination of basic materials and their transformations. The compositional process embodied here, then, is perhaps akin to what Paul Klee, in speaking of his sketches, called ‘taking the time for a walk,’ the line here being an expanding and contracting one relative to the work’s thickening and thinning textures.
Fred Lerdahl writes:
“The String Trio was composed in 1965-66 while I was a graduate student at Princeton. It received its premiere at Tanglewood in 1966; subsequently I revised it, and the Composers Quartet first performed the work in its final form at Princeton in 1967. In conceiving my Trio I was influenced by Schoenberg’s String Trio in the writing for strings and in the formal conception of juxtaposing relatively short, highly contrasting sections within one large movement.
“The Piano Fantasy was written in 1964 during my senior year at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin. The previous summer, while at Tanglewood. I had heard music utilizing sounds produced inside the piano. In my Fantasy I attempted to incorporate these timbres integrally by restricting their function primarily to cadential articulation.
“These two compositions are the earliest by which I care to be represented. The pitch structures of both derive from the same semicombinatorial—but unordered—hexachord. In subsequent compositions I turned to other modes of pitch organization.”
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. Full liner notes are accessible via the link above.
Fred Lerdahl & Harvey Sollberger: Chamber Works
| MP3/320 | $13.00 | |
| FLAC | $13.00 | |
| WAV | $13.00 | |
| CD-R | $13.00 |
A *.pdf of the notes may be accessed here free of charge.
Track Listing
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Divertimento: I. First Movement
Harvey Sollberger
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Divertimento: II. Second Movement
Harvey Sollberger
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Divertimento: III. Third Movement
Harvey Sollberger
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Divertimento: IV. Fourth Movement
Harvey Sollberger
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Divertimento: V. Fifth Movement
Harvey Sollberger
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Divertimento: VI. Sixth Movement
Harvey Sollberger
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Divertimento: VII. Seventh Movement
Harvey Sollberger
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Impromptu
Harvey Sollberger
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Buy
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String Trio
Fred Lerdahl
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Buy
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Piano Fantasy
Fred Lerdahl
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Buy
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