account
basket
Challenge Records Int. logo
Orchestral Music (1965-1987)

Seattle Symphony

Orchestral Music (1965-1987)

Format: CD
Label: Bridge
UPC: 0090404949920
Catnr: BRIDG 9499
Release date: 04 May 2018
1 CD
 
Label
Bridge
UPC
0090404949920
Catalogue number
BRIDG 9499
Release date
04 May 2018
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
DE

About the album

George Perle described his journey as "a path toward a new kind of tonality. Music that was going to do what music used to do, with its basis being the twelve-tone scale instead of the diatonic scale". Annotator Christopher Hailey writes that "It is not necessary to go into analytical details because what Perle created was a language of such cogency and immediate appeal that no technical knowledge is necessary for its appreciation. It is music that is bracing without being strident, vigorous without being disjointed, sharply etched without being dryly acerbic; it is witty, lucid, stimulating, and, above all, deeply humane.
George Perle beschrieb seine Karriere als "einen Weg zu einer neuen Art von Tonalität". Musik, die das tun sollte, was die Musik früher getan hat, und zwar auf der Grundlage der Zwölftonskala statt der diatonischen Skala". Christopher Hailey schreibt dazu: "Es ist nicht nötig, in analytische Details zu gehen, denn das, was Perle geschaffen hat, war eine Sprache von solcher Überzeugungskraft und sofortiger Anziehungskraft, dass kein technisches Wissen für seine Wertschätzung notwendig ist. Es ist Musik, die belebt, ohne schrill zu sein, kraftvoll, ohne zerrissen zu sein, scharf geätzt, ohne trocken sauer zu sein; sie ist witzig, klar, anregend und vor allem zutiefst menschlich."

Artist(s)

Ludovic Morlot (conductor)

Jay Campbell (cello)

Composer(s)

George Perle

The recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, and an array of other major awards and honors, George Perle occupies a commanding position among American composers of our time. Born in Bayonne, NJ, May 6, 1915, he received his early musical education in Chicago. After graduation from DePaul University, where he studied composition with Wesley LaViolette, and subsequent private studies with Ernst Krenek, Perle served in the US Army during World War II. After the War, he took post-graduate work in musicology at New York University. His PhD thesis became his first book, Serial Composition and Atonality, now in its sixth edition. Perle’s music has been widely performed in this country and abroad. Major commissions have resulted in significant works,...
more

The recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, and an array of other major awards and honors, George Perle occupies a commanding position among American composers of our time. Born in Bayonne, NJ, May 6, 1915, he received his early musical education in Chicago. After graduation from DePaul University, where he studied composition with Wesley LaViolette, and subsequent private studies with Ernst Krenek, Perle served in the US Army during World War II. After the War, he took post-graduate work in musicology at New York University. His PhD thesis became his first book, Serial Composition and Atonality, now in its sixth edition.

Perle’s music has been widely performed in this country and abroad. Major commissions have resulted in significant works, among them Serenade III (1983) for solo piano and chamber orchestra, choreographed by American Ballet Theater and nominated in a Nonesuch recording, for a Grammy Award (1986); Woodwind Quintet No.4 (Pulitzer Prize, 1986); Piano Concerto No.1 (1990), commissioned for Richard Goode during Perle’s residency with the San Francisco Symphony; Piano Concerto No.2 (1992), commissioned by Michael Boriskin; Transcendental Modulations for Orchestra, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for its 150th anniversary; and Thirteen Dickinson Songs (1978) commissioned by Bethany Beardslee. Recent works include Brief Encounters (fourteen movements for string quartet), Nine Bagatelles for piano, Critical Moments and Critical Moments 2 for six players, and Triptych for solo violin and piano. A particularly notable portion of Perle’s catalog consists of pieces for solo piano, many of which have been recorded by Michael Boriskin on New World Records.

Perle’s compositions have figured on the programs of Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, BBC, and other major orchestras in this country and abroad. Perle’s works are recorded on Nonesuch, Harmonia Mundi, New World, Albany, CRI and other labels. He has been a frequent Visiting Composer at the Tanglewood Music Festival and Composer-in-Residence with the San Francisco Symphony.

Though Perle is above all a composer, the breadth of his musical interests has led to significant contributions in theory and musicology as well. He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals and seven books, including the award-winning Operas of Alban Berg. He has been a guest professor at major universities and a much sought after lecturer and commentator on TV, here and abroad. He is Professor Emeritus at the City University of New York.

As music critic Andrew Porter has written, “Perle’s renown as an analyst and scholar may have diverted some of the attention that should be given to his merits as a composer … What matters to listeners is his achievement: the vividness of his melodic gestures, the lively rhythmic sense, the clarity and shapeliness of his discourse and, quite simply, the charm and grace of his utterance.”


less

Press

Play album Play album

You might also like..

Solos & Duos
Various Artists
Five Piano Sonatas
Steven Beck
Project Fusion
Project Fusion
Visca L'Amor
Isaí Jess Muñoz
New England Trios
Joel Pitchon
A Lad's Love
Brian Giebler
American Gifts
Jack Van Geem and Nancy Zeltsman
Yellowbird
Aaron Tindall
Sonata Dementia
PARTCH Ensemble
Music for Two Pianos
Quattro Mani
Three Pieces in the Shape of a Square
Craig Morris
For John Cage (1982)
Erik Carlson