IDAGIO | New York Variations – Piano Works by Copland, Corigliano, Tsontakis & Ben Weber 00602448806758

Featuring

Stephen Hough
John Corigliano Jr.
Aaron Copland
Ben Weber
George Tsontakis

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Critical Reception

The premiere of Copland's Piano Variations was met with skepticism by some, with Walter Gieseking declining to play it, stating that audiences would not accept its 'crude dissonances'.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Although none of the composers on this album were professional pianists, they wrote for the instrument with profound insight and invention.

Composer Biography

Ben Weber, a largely self-taught composer, was the first American composer to consistently use the twelve-note technique.

Composition History

Aaron Copland began working on his Piano Variations in a small rented house in Bedford, New York, in 1930, after returning from a summer in Paris.

Composition History

John Corigliano's Etude Fantasy was described by the composer as a 'tense, histrionic outgrowth of the 'clean' American sound of Barber, Copland, Harris, and Schuman'.

Composer's Artistic Vision

George Tsontakis, who rediscovered tonality in the mid-1980s, weaves his own musical fabric from familiar melodic and harmonic strands of the past, making his music feel both new and classic.