Summer Dreams: American Piano Duets by Beach, MacDowell & Barber

Featuring

Emma Abbate
Julian Perkins
Justine Marler
Edward Alexander MacDowell
Amy Beach
Samuel Barber

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Composer Biography

Both Amy Beach and Edward MacDowell, composers featured on this album, were highly skilled pianists who wrote challenging concertos for themselves and their contemporaries.

Performer Biography

Julian Perkins, the other pianist on this album, is the Artistic Director of the Portland Baroque Orchestra in Oregon, USA, and also of Cambridge Handel Opera and Sounds Baroque in the UK.

Composition History

Edward MacDowell's Moon Pictures Op.21, featured on this album, is subtitled 'after H.C. Andersen's Picture-Book without Pictures,' referring to an 1848 collection of short bedtime stories.

Performer Biography

Emma Abbate, one of the pianists on this album, is a professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and a staff coach at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

Composition History

Samuel Barber composed his Souvenirs Op.28, featured on this album, as a 'party piece' after a period of creative difficulty, at the suggestion of his pianist friend Charles Turner.

Composer's Artistic Vision

The piano duet pieces by Beach and MacDowell on this album were created for the lucrative domestic market, tapping into the 19th-century Romantic fascination with childhood.

Composition History

Samuel Barber's Souvenirs Op.28, a suite of six dances on this album, was inspired by the atmosphere of a 1914 Palm Court at the Plaza Hotel, an era of early tangos.