Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915 / Essays for Orchestra Nos. 2 and 3

Featuring

Marin Alsop
Karina Gauvin
Thomas Trotter
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Samuel Barber

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Recording & Production

This album is the fifth installment in Naxos's series dedicated to Samuel Barber's music, conducted by Marin Alsop, who was named Gramophone Artist of the Year 2003.

Composer Biography

Barber was a highly acclaimed composer, winning two Pulitzer Prizes and the Prix de Rome, and receiving commissions from major musical institutions like the Metropolitan Opera.

Composition History

Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 was composed two years after World War II, reflecting a desire for less violent, more optimistic times.

Compositional Technique

The Toccata Festiva, a work for solo organ with orchestra, was designed to display the full range of technical possibilities of a new pipe organ, including a cadenza using only the pedals.

Composer Biography

Samuel Barber, the composer, entered the Curtis Institute as a member of its first class in 1924, where he studied composition, piano, and became a baritone.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Samuel Barber's music eluded critics because he was never part of a particular school or aesthetic, and is described as the 'last of the true romantics'.

Performer Biography

Marin Alsop, the conductor, studied at Yale and the Juilliard School and was a pupil of Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, and Gustav Meier at Tanglewood.