Innova 616, 2005 $35 for the boxed set of 5 CDs with booklet
30 years of commissioned works by regional composers
"The performances of these terrific pieces are superb - definitive." -- David Liptak, Chair of Composition, Eastman School of Music
Download a PDF of the review from Gramophone. (PDF will open in new window.)
CD 1: Steve Stucky Sappho Fragments, Brian Israel String Quartet No. 2, Elizabeth Alexander My Aunt Gives Me a Clarinet Lesson, Robert Keefe Riff, Variations on a Gershwin Tune (or two)
CD 2: Christopher Rouse Surma Ritornelli, Robert Palmer Carmina Amoris, Earl George Arioso, Daniel S. Godfrey Scrimshaw & Festoons, Joseph Downing Partita VI, Malcolm Lewis 3 Etudes, Dana Wilson Dancing with the Devil
CD 3: Melinda Wagner Sextet, Harris Lindenfeld from the Grotte des Combarelles, Christopher Hopkins Sonatas in Dark to Light, Ron Caltabiano Clarinet Quartet, Ann Silsbee Wakings, Howard Boatwright Adoration & Longing
CD 4: David Liptak Rhapsodies, Roberto Sierra Cronicas del discubrimiento, Richard Wernick A Poison Tree, Sam Pellman Crane Songs, Augusta Read Thomas Bells Ring Summer, 2 Etudes, Ping Jin Yangtze! Yangtze!
CD 5: James Willey Society Music, Nicholas D’Angelo Some Summer Sun, Syd Hodkinson Epitaph & Scherzo, Dexter Morrill Six Dark Questions, Liu Zhuang Wind Through Pines, Rob Smith Dance Mix
"... thank you for the beautiful and impressive CD of American Music! WOW! It is stunning! I am so honored to be a part of it and send you all my heartfelt thanks!"-- Augusta Read Thomas, Mead Composer-in-Residence, Chicago Symphony; Wyatt Professor of Music Composition, Northwestern University School of Music
"Congratulations on the astonishing history of accomplishment and commitment to new music. I have been an admirer of the Society for New Music for a long time." -- Litchfield, CT composer
"... very nice collection, full of small gems you are unlikely to hear in a concert hall near you." -- Francois Couture, Writer, journalist (All-Music Guide), producer of Delire Actuel which is broadcast on CFLX 95.5 FM in Sherbrooke, Quebec
Pinocchio's Adventure in Funland & Beauty and the Beast
Innova 636, 2005, $15
Michael Gandolfi: Pinocchio's Adventures in Funland (1999)
R. Murray Schafer: Beauty and the Beast (1979)
Pinocchio's Adventure in Funland, composed by Michael Gandolfi, is a retelling, for chamber orchestra and narrator, of a few of the many adventures of Carlo Collodi's manic marionette. The piece consists of 15 short scenes that are designed to entertain and educate young audiences by introducing them to the riches of concert music. It was commissioned by the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center for its Musicmakers Telling Tales series, and had its premiere at the Merkin Hall in NYC in April 1999.
Beauty and the Beast, an opera for solo voice, masks, and string quartet, was written in 1979 to a libretto by the composer, R. Murray Schafer, and intended for incorporation into Partita 3, which consists of a large number of short works. Partita 3 was created for presentation in an open-air environment as a kind of carnival or fair, with the audience free to move among the attractions.
Hear the 1999 Pulitzer Prize winner -- Melinda Wagner's Sextet, a Society commissioned work! The recording also includes David Liptak Rhapsodies, Jim Willey Society Music, Ron Caltabiano Torched Liberty,
Harris Lindenfeld from the Grotte des Combarelle
Performed by Walden Bass, Ron Caltabiano, Ed Castilano, George Coble, Kit Dodd, John Friedrichs, Dmitri Gerikh, Dan Godfrey, Linda Greene, Eric Gustafson, Bill Harris, Steven Heyman, Larry Luttinger, George Macero, Edward Murray, Neva Pilgrim, Vladimir Pritsker, Barbara Rabin, Donna Resue and Kevin Schempf. Cover art by Diana Godfrey.
"...this disc is highly recommended." -- American Record Guide
This recording, featuring the Society's performance of Palimpsest, is led by conductor Charles Peltz with pianist Aki Takahashi.
Other performers include Paige Morgan, Michael Richards, Lee Goodhew, William Bernatis, James Krehbiel, Lisa Hegyi, Deborah Moree, Elizabeth Simkin, Darrin Howell and Rob Bridge.
Neva Pilgrim Sings Music of Ernst Krenek, Richard Wernick, George Rochberg, R. Murray Schafer
CRI, 1999, $15
Ernst Krenek: Trois Chansons (Three Verhaeren Songs), Op. 30a (1924)
Richard Wernick: Haiku of Basho (1967)
George Rochberg: Songs in Praise of Krishna (1970)
Ernst Krenek: Zwei Zeitlieder, Op. 215 (1972)
R. Murray Schafer: Requiems for the Party Girl (1966)
Composer Richard Wernick said of Neva Pilgrim, soprano: "Neva has performed with dozens of groups and dozens of conductors at a huge number of venues and recorded for a large array of record labels. She has commissioned a remarkable amount of music of every possible stylistic persuasion, and has been a staunch supporter of young and unknown composers. ...She helped to found the Syracuse Society for New Music, without question one of the most active contemporary scenes in the country. The Society is now more than a quarter of a century old, and Neva has been the driving force of that organization for most of that time. Bravissima, Neva!"