WILLIAM BOLCOM ON NAXOS
Includes Violin Sonatas, Music for Two Pianos, and selected songs in addition to
Songs of Innocence and of Experience
The GRAMMY success of William Bolcom’s
Songs of Innocence and of Experience has put the recording back in the
spotlight, but there are a number of other excellent releases on Naxos featuring
the music of Bolcom.
Complete Violin Sonatas (8.559150) with Solomia
Soroka (violin) and Arthur Greene (piano)
Release date: February 21st,
2006
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Naxos has just released a CD of Bolcom’s
complete Violin Sonatas, composed over almost 40 years, featuring husband-and-wife
team Solomia Soroka and pianist Arthur Greene. The Second Sonata
(1978) was inspired partly by jazz fiddler Joe Venuti. Bolcom has
described his highly dramatic Third Sonata as “stramba (weird)
. . . Its last movement shares a mood somewhere between the darker tangos
of Astor Piazzolla and Arabic music.”
8.559150
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Music for Two Pianos (8.559244) with Elizabeth
and Marcel Bergmann
Release date: November 15th,
2005
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In a ClassicsToday.com review, Jed Distler wrote
of this recording: “William Bolcom's two-piano oeuvre fully reveals
his uncanny facility for assimilating the nuts and bolts of any musical
style or genre that crosses his composing table . . . I can't imagine
he'd be less than ecstatic over the Bergmann duo's caring, refined, and
meticulously worked-out interpretations.”
8.559244
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Songs (8.559249) with Carole Farley (soprano) and
William Bolcom (piano)
Release date: June 21st, 2005
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The selection of songs on this GRAMMY-nominated
CD, chosen by Farley, include several world premiere recordings and cover
forty years of Bolcom’s writing for both concert and theatre.
Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times praised the disc, noting that
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(e)ven songs that seem just novelties on the surface are musically
subtle . . . Ms. Farley handles the popular-tinged songs stylishly . .
. That Mr. Bolcom plays with such elegance and authority is no surprise.”
8.559249
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Songs of Innocence and of Experience
(8.559216-18)
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This landmark recording of William Bolcom’s
Songs of Innocence and of Experience recently won three GRAMMY
Awards: Best Classical Album (awarded to the performers and producer),
Best Choral Performance (awarded to the choral directors and orchestral
conductor), and Best Classical Contemporary Composition (awarded to the
composer).
8.559216-18
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