The White Peacock

Track Listings

1. Andrea Stern - Mosaic

2. Salvador Brotons - Tre Divertimenti, Op. 68; Molto allegro

3. Salvador Brotons - Tre Divertimenti, Op. 68; Adagio lamentoso

4. Salvador Brotons - Tre Divertimenti, Op. 68; Con fuoco

5. Charles T. Griffes - The White Peacock (for flute, guitar and bassoon)

6. Daniel Dorff - Serenade to Eve, After Rodin

7. Joaquin Rodrigo - Serenata al Alba del Dia; Andante moderato

8. Joaquin Rodrigo - Serenata al Alba del Dia; Allegro

9. Claude Debussy - Le Petit Berger

10. Claude Debussy - Le Petit Negre

11. Jean-Michel Damase - Quatre Facettes; Allegretto

12. Jean-Michel Damase - Quatre Facettes; Andante

13. Jean-Michel Damase - Quatre Facettes; Allegro scherzando

14. Jean-Michel Damase - Quatre Facettes; Presto

Editorial Reviews
Composer, Salvador Brotons
No one has performed this piece as well as you have just done - bravo to you both!

Composer, Daniel Dorff
Wow! It's wonderful to hear the Serenade played so beautifully - bravo!

Album Description
The Harris-Coates Duo turns to evocative, contemporary repertoire on their third CD release with premiere recordings by Salvador Brotons, Daniel Dorff and Jean-Michel Damase (American recording premiere). These pieces were all premiered by the Harris-Coates Duo at the 2001 National Flute Association convention in Dallas, TX. Other works on the CD include a new transcription of American composer Charles T. Griffes' "The White Peacock." This piece, originally written for piano in 1915 and later scored by Griffes for full orchestra, was transcribed and arranged by Mike Coates for flute, guitar and bassoon -- this recording features guest artist Russell Peterson on bassoon.

From featured invitational performances--at such events as the 2001 and 1998 National Flute Conventions (Dallas and Phoenix) and the 1999 College Music Society Convention in Denver--to compact disc recordings, intimate recitals, and master classes, the past ten years have seen the Harris-Coates Duo amaze audiences with their sheer beauty of sound, technical virtuosity, and effortless ensemble.

The Harris-Coates Duo has two other CD releases on Barking Dog Records, also available on Amazon, "Reverie" (1997) and "Dances in the Madhouse" (2000).

The White Peacock

Tracks:

The White Peacock
The Lament Of Ian The Proud
Thy Dark Eyes To Mine
The Rose Of The Night
Bacchanale
Clouds
The Lake At Evening
The Vale Of Dreams
The Night Winds
Poem For Flute And Orchestra
The Pleasure Dome Of Kubla Khan

Album Description

During his brief life (cut short by pneumonia when he was just 35), Charles Griffes was able to compose music of distinctive beauty. He was fascinated by the music of the French-Impressionist composers Debussy and Ravel but was also influenced by the Russian sounds of Scriabin and Mussorgsky and a German post-romantic idiom. Ultimately, Griffes found his own unique voice that blended all of these characteristics. Griffes had a passion for verse and almost all of his orchestral scores are linked in some way to poetic or literary ideas. The works on this disc are notable examples of Griffes' "tone pictures" with the exception of the Poem for Flute and Orchestra, a miniature tone poem without associated text or images.

Customer Reviews:

This covers him..........2006-06-20

NAXOS with artful readings by JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Phil., and some superb engineering, give's us an affordable value CD of Charles Griffe's limited French-Impressionist influenced orchestral output(he died at 35). All the works included on this disc with the exception of "Poem for flute and orch." are linked to some poetic or literary ideas. His masterpiece "The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan" is his most memorable composition. About 12min. of frenzied paganistic lust featuring low bass and interjections of howling brass. With the exception of the "Bacchanale"(more tempered than Pleasure Dome)all the other works are less memorable and less colorful than their titles imply, only showing Griffes's Ravel-Debussy style. My 3 star rating does not berate the performers or production, only the minimal influence of this composer.

A Must-Have Recording.......2004-04-27

Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920) was the great American what-might-have-been composer. He died tragically young at 35 of pneumonia; it gives one pause to think that with a normal life-span he might have continued composing into the 1950s! Although those familiar with his best-known works, 'The White Peacock' and 'The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan,' both presented here, might assume that he was a Debussy-and-water impressionist, this is far from the case. In fact, those two pieces are much better than this description makes them out to be, each showing clear evidence of Griffes's own personal voice and a real feel for original form. As he progressed in his too-short career, he began taking into account the kinds of things that Scriabin, Stravinsky, and even Schoenberg were doing and some of his later works show these influences.

All but one of the pieces here were originally written for piano; I recall playing 'The White Peacock' and its companion piece, 'The Fountain of the Acqua Paola' when I was a youngster, and remember the visceral thrill of all that misty and evocative impressionism. On this disc the lone exception written originally for orchestra is the lovely 'Poem for Flute and Orchestra,' played exquisitely here by Carol Wincenc, one of the most musical flutists now before the public. The piece itself has passages that sound for all the world like they come from the world of English pastoralism with modal melodies and hornpipe-y 6/8 rhythms, and of the Celtic-twilight mist-world reminiscent of Bax.

'The White Peacock,' is followed by 'Three Poems of Fiona McLeod' for soprano and orchestra, sung with real feeling here by Barbara Quintiliani whose lovely voice is a real plus; there is an incipient wobble at the highly-placed climactic moments, and unfortunately texts by Fiona McLeod (the nom de plume of poet William Sharp) are not included, but these song still manage to make an emotional impact. They are 'The Lament of Ian the Proud,' 'Thy Dark Eyes to Mine,' and 'The Rose of the Night.'

'Bacchanale' is a scherzo which could as easily have been named 'Orientale' except that there are some barbaric yawps included along the way. This is a lively, exotic-sounding piece that I'd never heard before. 'Clouds' comes from the piano suite, 'Roman Sketches,' that includes the aforementioned 'White Peacock' and 'The Fountain of Acqua Paola.' It attempts, successfully, to depict the 'golden domes and towers' of a cloud city.

'Three Tone Pictures,' each inspired by a specific poem, includes 'The Lake at Evening' inspired by Yeats's 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree'; 'The Vale of Dreams' and 'The Night Winds' were inspired by Poe's 'The Sleeper' and 'The Lake' respectively. These three tone poems all featured a prominent orchestral piano part and come close, to my mind, to the greatness of Debussy's 'Ibéria' in their sonic depiction of specific scenes.

The final piece recorded here is 'The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan,' inspired of course by Coleridge's great poem and depicting loosely the story of Xanadu, the hidden 'pleasure dome' belonging to the Asian emperor in which a woman cries for her spectral lover. Particularly effective is the portrayal of 'a mighty fountain momently was forced; / Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst / Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail, / Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail: / And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever / It flung up momently the sacred river [Alph].'

Here is must be said that the direction by Jo Ann Falletta and the playing of her Buffalo Philharmonic are beyond praise. This orchestra has played an important part in recording much of what is good in American music, going back at least to those important recordings of Ruggles's music done when Michael Tilson Thomas was their music director, and even before that to the days of Lukas Foss's tenure. There are rare moments of uncertainty or rhythmic insecurity but the group is also clearly one of the best orchestras in America currently. I'm delighted that they have a three-record contract with Naxos to record American music. Earlier they had recorded music of Frederick Converse and it, too, was a winner. I am eager to learn what the third of their recordings will be.

Urgently recommended.

Tracks:

Through The Looking Glass: Dedication
Through The Looking Glass: The Garden Of Live Flowers
Through The Looking Glass: Jabberwocky
Through The Looking Glass: Looking Glass Insects
Through The Looking Glass: The White Knight
The Pleasure-Dome Of Kubla Khan
The White Peacock
Poem For Flute And Orchestra
Three Tone Pictures: The Lake At Evening
Three Tone Pictures: The Vale Of Dreams
Three Tone Pictures: The Night Winds
Bacchanale

Customer Reviews:

Delightful.......2002-01-12

One of the nicest classical albums I've listened to in many a year. This CD always lifts my spirits.

Average customer rating:

Quite a surprise!

Griffes: Collected Works for Piano

Manufacturer: New World Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Preludes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Griffes: Complete Piano Works, Vol. 1
Charles Griffes: The Pleasure Dome of Kubla Khan/The White Peacock/Three Poems of Fiona McLeod

ASIN: B0000030G2
Release Date: 1997-08-19

Tracks:

Three Tone-Pictures, Op. 5: The Lake At Evening
Three Tone-Pictures, Op. 5: The Night Winds
Three Tone-Pictures, Op. 5: The Vale Of Dreams
Piece In B-Flat major
Piece In D Minor
Legend
Roman Sketches, Op. 7: The White Peacock
De Profundis
Dance In A Minor
Roman Sketches, Op. 7: Nightfall
Piece In E Major
Roman Sketches, Op. 7: Clouds
Roman Sketches, Op. 7: The Fountain Of The Acqua Paola
Three Preludes: Prelude 1
Three Preludes: Prelude 2
Three Preludes: Prelude 3
Sonata

Customer Reviews:

Quite a surprise!.......2003-09-19

The work of Charles Griffes may represent one of those rare hidden treasures of America's not-too-distant past. Although his piano works draw upon the likes of Debussy and Chopin, they certainly seem unique and creative enough to warrant similar acclaim. In his music I hear a certain introspective sound that I suppose one would call "impressionism". Anyone who can appreciate Debussy's work, or even Bill Evans's for that matter, will definitely want to check out this cd. The artistry and sound quality also seem quite exceptional.

Average customer rating:

Fine American anthology
If you like this music, you'll love this CD

An American Tapestry

Manufacturer: Dorian Recordings
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

Modern & 20th Century | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000001QB2
Release Date: 1996-04-09

Tracks:

New England Triptych: I. Be Glad Then, America
New England Triptych: II. When Jesus Wept
New England Triptych: III. Chester
The White Peacock, Op. 7, No.1
Three Places In New England: I. The 'St. Gaudens' In Boston Common (Col. Robert Gould And His...
Three Places In New England: II. Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut
Three Places In New England: III. The Housatonic At Stockbridge
Mysterious Mountain (Symphony No.2): Andante Con Moto
Mysterious Mountain (Symphony No.2): Moderato Maestoso (Double Fugue)
Mysterious Mountain (Symphony No.2): Andante Espressivo
The Incredible Flutist: Introduction-Siesta In The Market Place
The Incredible Flutist: Entrance Of The Vendors
The Incredible Flutist: Entrance Of The Customers
The Incredible Flutist: Tango Of The Merchant's Daughters
The Incredible Flutist: Arrival Of The Circus
The Incredible Flutist: Circus March
The Incredible Flutist: The Flutist
The Incredible Flutist: Minuet
The Incredible Flutist: Spanish Waltz
The Incredible Flutist: (Eight O'Clock Strikes)
The Incredible Flutist: Siciliana
The Incredible Flutist: Polka Finale

Customer Reviews:

Fine American anthology.......2007-05-23

This CD might as easily have been called "America's Second Greatest Hits" in that it contains the "lollipops" of composers not named Gershwin, Copland or Barber. As such, it serves a useful purpose if you just want the basics of these composers. Suffice it to say that all the performances here are polished and poetic and the Dorian recording is spectacular--natural, with percussion and brass especially riveting.

If you like this music, you'll love this CD.......2001-03-18

I've been looking for a CD that brings together some favorite pieces by American composers and this does a great job. The performance is clear and precise...with a lot of energy. The Ives is suitably ethereal and impressionist, the Schuman and Griffes are driving and powerful. Turn it up and enjoy the pleasures of the American landscape, imagery, spirit, culture, and mythology in beautiful melodies and rhythms.

Tiszta forrás (Pure Springs): Hungarian Folk Tunes and Their Arrangements in Works by Bartók and Kodály

Average customer rating:

Tiszta forrás (Pure Springs): Hungarian Folk Tunes and Their Arrangements in Works by Bartók and Kodály

Manufacturer: Hungaroton
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Duets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Hungarian | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Choruses | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Noels | Vocal Non-Opera | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Kodaly: Hungarian Folk Music; Bartok: Hungarian Folksongs Sz64
Csardas Hungarian Gypsy Music

ASIN: B00007138S
Release Date: 2002-10-29

Leopold Stokowski: The New York Philharmonic Columbia (US) Recordings, Volume 1

Average customer rating:

Leopold Stokowski: The New York Philharmonic Columbia (US) Recordings, Volume 1

Manufacturer: Cala
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

Romantic (c.1820-1910) | Historical Periods | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

German | Languages | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00006RYHM
Release Date: 2006-11-20

Average customer rating:

The White Peacock

ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Classical | Indie Music | Stores | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00006RJVA
Release Date: 2002-09-09

Tracks:

Andrea Stern - Mosaic
Salvador Brotons - Tre Divertimenti, Op. 68; Molto allegro
Salvador Brotons - Tre Divertimenti, Op. 68; Adagio lamentoso
Salvador Brotons - Tre Divertimenti, Op. 68; Con fuoco
Charles T. Griffes - The White Peacock (for flute, guitar and bassoon)
Daniel Dorff - Serenade to Eve, After Rodin
Joaquin Rodrigo - Serenata al Alba del Dia; Andante moderato
Joaquin Rodrigo - Serenata al Alba del Dia; Allegro
Claude Debussy - Le Petit Berger
Claude Debussy - Le Petit Negre
Jean-Michel Damase - Quatre Facettes; Allegretto
Jean-Michel Damase - Quatre Facettes; Andante
Jean-Michel Damase - Quatre Facettes; Allegro scherzando
Jean-Michel Damase - Quatre Facettes; Presto

Album Description

The Harris-Coates Duo turns to evocative, contemporary repertoire on their third CD release with premiere recordings by Salvador Brotons, Daniel Dorff and Jean-Michel Damase (American recording premiere). These pieces were all premiered by the Harris-Coates Duo at the 2001 National Flute Association convention in Dallas, TX. Other works on the CD include a new transcription of American composer Charles T. Griffes' "The White Peacock." This piece, originally written for piano in 1915 and later scored by Griffes for full orchestra, was transcribed and arranged by Mike Coates for flute, guitar and bassoon -- this recording features guest artist Russell Peterson on bassoon.

Customer Reviews:

A nice concept, not always consistently carried out, but an enjoyable survey nonetheless.......2007-06-07

"The American Innovator", mind you, and not "innovators", as if, beyond a haphazard and motley collection of individuals, there was a particularly American compositional strain in favor of innovation - and maybe there is. The sheer geographical distance from Europe possibly made it easier for American composers (such as Cowell and Cage) to reject the weight of European tradition, and the widespread sentiment, arising after World War I, that the United States was a new major power that stood on its own and owed nothing to its European ancestors, worked in the same direction.

Of course one is always tempted to discuss the contents of such a collection, both for what it includes and for what it leaves aside. Young George Antheil and George Crumb - two essential American innovators, I think - are absent. But then to include Griffes' Debussysms is far-fetched - unless you consider that anything that strayed from the Salon romanticism of an Amy Beach or a Horatio Parker is "innovative". What then is an "American innovator"? Is it, as the notes put it, one of those "outsiders who consciously shun the dominant European-oriented culture" and are "isolated from the mainstream"? But Ives, the unquestionable epitome of the American Innovator, could dynamite the European traditional only because he was so deeply steeped in it, through the teachings of his professor Horatio Parker at Yale. And the American serialists, such as Babbitt, far from shuning the European model, took on the compositional "system" invented by Schoenberg and applied by Webern and pushed it to its limits. So maybe an American Innovator is just an innovator that happens to be American, or just an American that happens to be featured on this disc (part of a tryptich that includes American Virtuoso and The American Romantic), offering an enjoyable selection of rarely performed and recorded 20th century piano pieces.

It is an amusing test to try and forget the track listing and even the composers' names, and try and recognize them from their compositions. Ornstein is easy; once you've heard his "A la Chinoise" from circa 1918 (for instance by Marthanne Verbit on Valentines or by Marc-André Hamelin on Piano Music: Suicide on an Airplane / La Chinoise), you can hardly forget it. Feinberg plays it excellently, with dynamism and kaleidoscopic colors.

2. Clockwork repetitive chime-like piano over child-like, dreamy harmonies? No other than John Adams (China Gates, 1977). From Ornstein to Adams, apparently the American Innovator is inspired by China.

3. Muscular and angry short etude with strong off-beat accents, rising from the depths to the heights of the keyboard and back? Ruth Crawford's Piano Study in Mixed Accents (1930).

4. Mesmerisingly nostalgic and dreamy strummed strings: Cowell evidently (Aeolian Harp, circa 1923).

5. Pointillistic serial piano with pointillistic tape sounds spaced-out stereophonically, sounding like a cliché of contemporary music from the sixties (but quite fascinating nonetheless). Would that be Babbitt? Ooops! Sorry, it was already 1970, it was Davidovsky (a Babbitt pupil, nonetheless), it was his Synchronisms No. 6, and it would possibly make a good sonic counterpoint to some Jackson Pollocks drips (or do you prefer Mondrian's abstract canvasses?).

6. A tango. I know Astor Piazzola is not on this disc. Ah, yes, Harbison, "Tango Seen from Ground Level" (1991). Not very significant, I must say, and so much the liner notes admit, but reveal that it was written for the birth of Alan Feinberg's son - "and birth is always an innovation".

7. Debussy dreaminess? Sure, Griffes: "White Peacock" from the Three Roman Sketches (1915). There is more American and more innovative, I should think - even in Griffes' own Piano Sonata.

8. Another pointillistic serial post-Webern "clonk-clonk", without tape this time: is it now Babbitt? Well, yes it is (Playing for Time, quite remarkable for its serial radicalism, as it was written as early as 1938, when the composer was 22).

9. A Simple folk-like tune of Celtic tinge over sweet-sounding clustered chords: here's another Cowell (Exultation - 1919).

10. Jagged rhythms and frenetic counterpoint, sounding like a boogie-woogie on cocaine or a player piano gone berserk? Unmistakably Nancarrow (his Prelude from 1935).

11. And again another pointillistic serial "clonk-clonk" - you'd think someone was trying to monkey the animated variation from Webern's Opus 27. Now who other than Babbitt among the American serialists was represented on the disc? Ah ah, good ear! It is another Babbitt, and a Serial Tango to boot (It Takes Twelve to Tango, 1984).

12. Now comes something like "dissonant counterpoint" in stern mood. Is Ruggles represented on the disc? Nope, a check indicates that it is "Vestiges", one of Cowell's "non-celtic" compositions, from 1920 - but I wasn't so far out: as Carol Oja indicates in her seminal book on the American modernists in the 1920s (Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s), there were strong stylistic as well as personal ties between Cowell; Ruggles and Dane Rudhyard, another American Innovator not represented here.

13. Machinistic rhythms, prepared piano sounding like a mixture between Balinese ritual music and a crazy array of struck boxes, cans, metal rods, and a possible sonic accompaniment to a sculpture of Jean Tinguely? Cage's prepared piano of course (Bachanale, his first composition for prepared piano, from 1940).

14. Massive chordal writing in polyrhythms and polytonality, leading to zany ragtimes and demented take offs from American popular tunes (including Dixie)? Ives naturally (Etude # 20 probably from 1908).

15. More Debussy watery ripples: Griffes' "The Fountain of Acqua Paola" (1916), another Roman Sketch.

16. Brutal onslaught in jagged rhythms. Nancarrow without the playfulness. I pass on this one. No wonder, it was Ralph Shapey's "Seven" (1963), hardly a staple of the piano literature, even for modernist aficionados such as myself. By the way, it is supposed to be for piano four hands, but we are not told whose are the two additional hands playing on the disc: presumably Feinberg's own in re-recording.

17. Cool Jazz in a smoked-up Club around 11 pm. Thelonious Monk, "an odd bedfellow with Babbitt and Davidovsky" indeed, to quote again the notes. But for Jazz, it is somewhat innovative, I guess.

Tasty little survey.......2004-12-19

Alan Feinberg is one of the finest pianists interpreting contemporary music today. Anything he does deserves a listen. This album is a little survey of mostly mid to late 20th Century piano music. And it is a delight. It covers a variety of styles from jazz age through serialism and even a little minimalism. Many pieces recorded here are not to be found elsewhere. It is a shame that this has gone out of print. Get a used copy if you can you will not regret it. Perhaps some visionary record company can re-release it. Do you hear me New World Records, Naxos?

Average customer rating:

The Moscow Sessions

Manufacturer: Sheffield Lab
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Waltzes | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

Tracks:

Festive Ov, Op.96 - The Moscow PO/Lawrence Leighton Smith
Appalachian Spring (Ballet For Martha) - The Moscow PO/Dmitri Kitayenko
Lullaby - The Moscow PO/Dmitri Kitayenko
The White Peacock - The Moscow PO/Dmitri Kitayenko
Valse De Conc in D, Op.47 - The Moscow PO/Lawrence Leighton Smith
The Unanswered Question - The Moscow PO/Dmitri Kitayenko

Track Listings:

Track Listings

Ray Bryant [Import] [Limited Edition] [Original recording remastered]

Piano Sonatas 4

Sing it! Say it! Stamp it! Sway it! Vol. 1

Ray's Blues

State of Discontent

Minha Historia

Los Malandrines [Explicit Lyrics]

Verses: Guidance

Movin on

1. Andrea Stern - Mosaic
2. Salvador Brotons - Tre Divertimenti, Op. 68; Molto allegro
3. Salvador Brotons - Tre Divertimenti, Op. 68; Adagio lamentoso
4. Salvador Brotons - Tre Divertimenti, Op. 68; Con fuoco
5. Charles T. Griffes - The White Peacock (for flute, guitar and bassoon)
6. Daniel Dorff - Serenade to Eve, After Rodin
7. Joaquin Rodrigo - Serenata al Alba del Dia; Andante moderato
8. Joaquin Rodrigo - Serenata al Alba del Dia; Allegro
9. Claude Debussy - Le Petit Berger
10. Claude Debussy - Le Petit Negre
11. Jean-Michel Damase - Quatre Facettes; Allegretto
12. Jean-Michel Damase - Quatre Facettes; Andante
13. Jean-Michel Damase - Quatre Facettes; Allegro scherzando
14. Jean-Michel Damase - Quatre Facettes; Presto