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Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Claude Baker - Piano Concerto (Marc-André Hamelin)


Information

Composer: Claude Baker
  • (01) Piano Concerto 'From Noon to Starry Night'
  • (06) Aus Schwanengesang

Marc-André Hamelin, piano (1-5)
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Gilbert Varga, connductor (1-5)
Juanjo Mena, conductor (6-10)

Date: 2017
Label: Naxos
https://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.559804


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Review

Here are two substantial works by the Bloomington-based composer Claude Baker (b1948), whose Piano Concerto (2010), written to celebrate the centenary of Indiana University, is also a tribute to Walt Whitman. Titles from the latter’s poems preface each movement, though only the first, ‘Drum Taps’, and the cadenza-like fourth, ‘Dalliance’, eschew allusions to other composers. The second, ‘Silent Sun’, quotes from Ives’s Concord Sonata while the third, ‘Lilacs’, takes in both Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde; the finale, ‘Ecstatic Ghost’, draws on Messiaen and Ives inter alios in an aura of mystical rapprochement. Less certain is the integration between these and Baker’s own music, akin to Ruggles in its often dissonant yet never atonal harmony, such that a personal identity never quite materialises.

This is less an issue in Aus Schwanengesang, which takes the Heine settings from Schubert’s posthumous cycle then rearranges their order according to the poet’s ‘Die Heimkehr’. These are not orchestrations but paraphrases of the original songs – moving from the tense expectation of ‘Das Fischermädchen’, via the ominous rapture and fraught emotion of the composite ‘Am Meer’ and ‘Die Stadt’, climaxing with the horror of ‘Der Doppelgänger’ which carries over into the yearning of ‘Ihr Bild’, before ending in the fatalism of ‘Der Atlas’. Effective as a concept, its falling between transcription and re-composition again places Baker’s voice at the periphery.

Performances could hardly be bettered. Marc-André Hamelin conjures scintillating pianism, while Gilbert Varga and Juanjo Mena secure committed orchestral playing. Another work might have brought Baker’s idiom into greater focus: there was certainly room on this disc.

-- Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Oct/Baker_PC_8559804.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2017/Dec/Baker_PC_8559804.htm
https://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.559804&languageid=EN

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Claude Baker (born April 12, 1948 Lenoir, North Carolina, USA) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Baker studied at the East Carolina University and the Eastman School of Music. He held the position of Composer-in-Residence of the St. Louis Symphony from 1991 to 1999, initiating numerous community-based projects during this time. Among the many orchestras in addition to St. Louis that have commissioned and/or performed his music are those of San Francisco, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Nashville, as well as the New York Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Baker

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Marc-André Hamelin (born September 5, 1961 in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian virtuoso pianist and composer. Hamelin is recognized worldwide for the originality and technical brilliance of his performances of the classic repertoire. He has made recordings of a wide variety of composers with the Hyperion label. He is well known for his attention to lesser-known composers especially of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and for performing works by pianist-composers. Hamelin has also composed several works, including a set of piano études in all of the minor keys.

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6 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Ronald, I'm sorry to hit you with two requests in one night, but this is another recording Mega apparently deleted, and I would love it if you could re-up this one as well. I really do appreciate your efforts here, and your splendid taste in music! Thanks so much...

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Hello, can you please reupload this one? Thanks.

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  5. Choose one link, copy and paste it to your browser's address bar, wait a few seconds (you may need to click 'Continue' first), then click 'Skip Ad' (or 'Get link').
    If you are asked to download or install anything, IGNORE, only download from file hosting site (mega.nz).
    If MEGA shows 'Bandwidth Limit Exceeded' message, try to create a free account.

    http://usheethe.com/kMJu
    or
    https://uii.io/pM1H1m
    or
    https://exe.io/cjsW7ap

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