Tuesday, November 11, 2008

LEO SMIT: AARON COPLAND'S COMPLETE MUSIC FOR SOLO PIANO

Here’s a change of pace for FANFARE FOR AARON COPLAND. Instead of the orchestral music Copland was most renowned for, we offer a survey of his compositions for solo piano, performed by the finest interpreter of this repertory.

Among the selections included is Copland's famous "Piano Fantasy," one of the most highly esteemed piano works of the 20th century on which the pianist, Leo Smit, does an excellent job on music not easy to play correctly.

This is daring music, usually challenging, but worth the investment in time that is necessary to fully appreciate these pieces. Scoredaddy

Most of this set was recorded for LP in 1978, but Leo Smit returned to the studios in 1993 to add some recently discovered short pieces. Smit, a friend of Copland and a composer himself, plays all of Copland's piano music with great comprehension. He sustains the flow throughout the difficult half-hour Piano Fantasy, though he doesn't create as much excitement in the Piano Variations as the composer did in 1935 on 78s (now on Pearl GEMM CD 9279). Much of Copland's piano music is occasional works or pieces for students, but the major works in the set make it well worth hearing. Leslie Gerber


Leo Smit (piano)

Disc 1
1 Scherzo Humoristique: The Cat and the Mouse (1920)
2 Piano Variations (1930)
3 In Evening Air (1966)
4 Passacaglia (1922)

Piano Sonata (1939-41)
5 I. Molto moderato
6 II. Vivace
7 III. Andante sostenuto

Two Piano Pieces (1982)
8 Midday Thoughts
9 Proclamation

Three Moods (1920-1921)
10 embittered
11 wistful
12 jazzy

Disc 2
1 Petite Portrait (1921)
2 Sentimental Melody (1926)
3 Piano Fantasy (1955-57)

Four Piano Blues (1926-48)
4 Freely Poetic (for Leo Smit)
5 Soft and Languid (for Andor Foldes)
6 Muted and Sensuous (for William Kapell)
7 With Bounce (for John Kirkpatrick)

8 Midsummer Nocturne (1947)
9 The Young Pioneers (1936)
10 Sunday Afternoon Music (1936)
11 Down A Country Lane (1962)
12 Night Thoughts (Homage to Ives) (1972)

Disc 1, #1,2,4,7 & disc 2, #3-12 were recorded at the Vanguard Studios, New York City in January, 1978

Disc 1, #3,8-12 & disc 2, #1-2 were recorded at Hit Factory, New York City on July 6, 1993

10 comments:

Scoredaddy said...

FLACS+CUES+LOGS+SCANS@300DPI
http://rapidshare.com/files/162764136/arncplnd-slopiano.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/162768068/arncplnd-slopiano.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/162771813/arncplnd-slopiano.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/162777104/arncplnd-slopiano.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/162759214/arncplnd-slopiano.part5.rar

In the Spectrum said...

You have nice Copland treasure. Thanks for your excellent uploads.

Horacio said...

this one I am not going to dowload because I already have it!!! Congratulations excelent post (as usual!!)

losiher said...

Thank you for sharing this wonderful music.
Greetings from Canary Islands, Spain.

Kwork said...

Thank you very very much!

Jorgy_1 said...

Dear friend:
Congratulations!!, it´s a great post.
A lot of thanks for sharing this beauty and wonderful music.
Please, I would like to hear Bernstein's works.
My best regards, from La Paz Bolivia

Yelmi said...

Thank you so much. I had the old Masselos LP, and I'm looking forward to hearing what Leo Smit does with this fine music.

Scoredaddy said...

If you download this album and appreciate my efforts sharing it with you, please make a comment below.

If you want to bring this upload to the attention of people on another website, please link to this blog and not to the actual download links.

NO MIRRORS, PLEASE!

FLACS(EAC)+CUE+LOG+SCANS

http://rapidshare.com/files/162777104/arncplnd-slopiano.part4.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/162764136/arncplnd-slopiano.part1.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/162768068/arncplnd-slopiano.part2.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/162771813/arncplnd-slopiano.part3.rar.html
http://rapidshare.com/files/162759214/arncplnd-slopiano.part5.rar.html

3bgu said...

Very much appreciated. Tank you so much from Italy.

crick said...

Please, be so kind to load the links again. Thank you