This recording project received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, New Music USA, the Classical Recording Foundation, and the Aaron Copland Fund for Recorded Music.
Composer's Artistic Vision
George Crumb's Metamorphoses, Books I & II, are a return to his interest in transforming visual art into music, a process he calls "transmuting sight into sound."
Performer Biography
Marcantonio Barone, the pianist on this recording, inspired Book II of Metamorphoses and has performed much of George Crumb's music, including the seven American Songbooks.
Compositional Technique
The Metamorphoses mark a return to Crumb's comprehensive exploration of new modes of expression for the piano, building on his earlier works like Makrokosmos.
Composition History
George Crumb was inspired by Modest Mussorgsky, who composed Pictures at an Exhibition, as the first composer to transform visual art into music.
Interpretation
Pianist Marcantonio Barone notes that in Metamorphoses, Crumb achieves an "orchestration" of similar richness to his American Songbooks, but in a work for solo piano with only a few auxiliary instruments.
Compositional Technique
Crumb's Metamorphoses explores a wide expressive range, with each movement inspired by a different painting, responding to its ethos and title rather than aiming for precise musical analogs.
