Gershwin, Harbison, Tower & Piston: Orchestral Works

Featuring

Kevin Cole
David Alan Miller
National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic
George Gershwin
John Harbison
Joan Tower

Walter Piston

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Composer Biography

Walter Piston, a significant contributor to 20th-century American music, taught music theory and composition at Harvard University from 1926 to 1960, with pupils including Leonard Bernstein and John Harbison.

Compositional Technique

Walter Piston's Symphony No. 5 incorporates twelve-tone elements, reflecting his experimentation with Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though he never fully embraced serialism.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Joan Tower's orchestral work Sequoia explores the concept of balance in music, focusing on register, rhythmic, and textural balance, inspired by Beethoven's music and the sequoia tree.

Performer Biography

Kevin Cole, the pianist on this album, has received praise from figures like Irving Berlin, Stephen Sondheim, and members of the Jerome Kern and Gershwin families for his performances of American music.

Compositional Technique

John Harbison augments his large orchestra for Remembering Gatsby with a trap-set and a flexatone, both instruments commonly used in 1920s dance bands.

Recording & Production

This recording of George Gershwin's Concerto in F is the first to be made from The George and Ira Gershwin Critical Edition, which presents the work as notated and performed by the composer.

Performer Biography

The National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic, one of the most celebrated festival orchestras in the US, received a GRAMMY Award nomination in 2019 for Best Orchestral Performance.