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Stefan Wolpe: Compositions for Piano (1920-1952)
David Holzman, Stefan Wolpe
Stefan Wolpe: Compositions for Piano (1920-1952)
Genre: Classical
 
  •  Track Listings (21) - Disc #1

Wolpe forged his musical thought at the piano, and most works in his wide-ranging catalogue include the piano. He composed an extensive repertoire for one, two, and three pianos, numerous songs, and pieces for instrumenta...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: David Holzman, Stefan Wolpe
Title: Stefan Wolpe: Compositions for Piano (1920-1952)
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Bridge
Original Release Date: 1/1/2002
Re-Release Date: 5/28/2002
Genre: Classical
Styles: Chamber Music, Historical Periods, Classical (c.1770-1830)
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPC: 090404911620

Synopsis

Album Description
Wolpe forged his musical thought at the piano, and most works in his wide-ranging catalogue include the piano. He composed an extensive repertoire for one, two, and three pianos, numerous songs, and pieces for instrumental ensembles of all sizes in which the piano is included. Wolpe's music for piano provides a chronicle of twentieth-century repertoire. His unique creative vision combines the stylistically inclusive modernism of Ferruccio Busoni, the revolutionary ideas of the masters of the Bauhaus, and the deconstructive experiments of the Dadas. But Wolpe did not look down on popular music as did many modernists. He could improvise in many popular styles, and he actively integrated into his music elements of the vernacular idioms of his successive homelands - Germany (1902-1933), Palestine (1934-1938), and the United States (1938-1972). Hailed as a "master pianist" (Andrew Porter, The New Yorker), David Holzman has won acclaim both for his recitals and his recordings. Concentrating his virtuosic talents on the 20th Century?s keyboard masterworks, Holzman has premiered more than 150 works by various composers and has made first recordings of many of them. Mr. Holzman has performed at festivals throughout the world including Darmstadt, Leningrad Spring, the Vienna Schoenberg Festival and Wolpe Festivals in Toronto and Northwestern University.
 

CD Reviews

Superb performance of underrated Modernist masterpieces
04/02/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)

"David Holzman studied with Wolpe and has been performing his music for some time now; Battle Piece (which Holzman previously recorded on LP) is arguably Wolpe's most important piano work: John Cage compared it to Boulez' Second Piano Sonata for pianistic brilliance and expressionistic force. The album includes a number of other works (including the partly tonal Zemach Suite, the politically engaged Encouragements, and two parodistic but not slight works, Tango and Waltz). Wolpe was a major figure both in pre-Hitler Berlin and in the New York of Abstract Expressionism, and his work has the rhythmic energy of Stravinsky and the subjective intensity of Schoenberg. These are pieces one must listen to repeatedly in order to appreciate them fully, and there is nothing academic about them. David Tudor, known for his work with Cage, Stockhausen and others, was an important collaborator on "Battle Piece" and its first interpreter. An important release and worth the while of anyone interested in 20th century classics."