| Tour 12/05/07 Scottish Chamber - Dumfries, Scotland 12/06/07 Scottish Chamber - Edinburgh, Scotland 12/07/07 Scottish Chamber - Glasgow, Scotland 12/08/07 Scottish Chamber - Aberdeen, Scotland 02/02/08 Ithaca College - Ithaca, NY 02/03/08 Ithaca College - Ithaca, NY 02/23/08 Music Institute of Chicago - Illinois 03/03/08 Jupiter Symphony - New York, NY 03/07/08 Dayton Philharmonic - Dayton, Ohio 03/08/08 Dayton Philharmonic - Dayton, Ohio 03/18/08 University of Chicago - Illinois 03/20/08 Jacksonville Symphony - Florida 03/21/08 Jacksonville Symphony - Florida 03/22/08 Jacksonville Symphony - Florida 03/29/08 Columbus Symphony Columbus, Georgia 04/14/08 Jupiter Symphony - New York, NY 04/17/08 Northwest Indiana Symphony - Merrillville, IN 04/17/08 Lane Tech Orchestra - Chicago, IL 04/25/08 New Philharmonic - Glen Ellyn, IL 04/26/08 New Philharmonic - Glen Ellyn, IL 04/15/08 Puerto Rico Symphony San Juan Discography
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You know, there's definitely going to be another Bands From Chicago, Illinois entry later. In the meantime, here's another Chicagoan: Rachel Barton Pine. I've previously mentioned her here before, but this entry is just for her 2006 album American Virtuosa: Tribute to Maud Powell.
You know, I'm the type of person that actually enjoy reading liner notes from albums (this is why I am still not going to totally convert to a digital medium just yet). This album comes with a whopping 23+ page booklet.
Most of the text are a well-researched mini-biography of Maud Powell, written by founder and president of The Maud Powell Society for Music and Education, Karen A Shaffer.
Not only do you get a CD full of Classical period pieces (all the songs were written between Powell's time period of 1800s and 1900s), but you also get to learn a lot about this American violinist. You can only imagine her struggles back then, especially because of her gender.
Powell actually never wrote any original compositions, which may explain why she's not more well-known in this century. What this album achieve is celebrating her life and bringing attention of her to a modern household.
Many of these songs on the album was arranged or transcribed by Powell. There were a few that Powell probably haven't played, but were recorded in dedication to her.
All of the songs are very good, there's a lot of variety in the choices of songs.
For instance, "Molly on the Shore" is an Irish-style song (originally written by Percy Aldridge Grainger). There's a lot of sharp and quick strokes in this song that would most likely keeps your toes tapping.
Another dance-designed song is the quick "Minute Waltz" by Frédéric Chopin, which the violin seems to weave in and out in different directions. It's also probably the shortest waltz you've ever heard, but it does last more than a minute (it's two minutes long).
The most American song on this album is "Caprice on Dixie" by Herman Bellstredt Jr., which contain his interpretation of the popular song, "Dixie". In this version, there seems to be almost some hand-plucked sounds from the violin (?), so it sounds like you can play this with a fiddle.
Here's a listing of all the songs appearing on this album:
| Beach: Romance, Op. 23 | Grainger: Molly on the Shore | Dvorak: Songs My Mother Sang |
| Sibelius: Musette from King Christian II | Bauer: Up the Ocklawaha, Op. 6 | Chopin: “Minute” Waltz, Op. 64, No. 1 |
| Venth: Aria | Palmgren: May Night | Coleridge-Taylor: Deep River, Op. 59, No. 10 |
| Dvorak: Humoreske, Op. 101, No. 7 | Danks: Silver Threads Among the Gold | Bellstedt, Jr.: Caprice on Dixie |
| Huss: Romance | Gilbert: Marionettes (Scherzo) | Burleigh: Four Rocky Mountain Sketches,Op.11 |
| Massenet: Twilight (Créspuscule) from Poèmes | Liebling: Fantasia on Sousa Themes | Johnson: Nobody Knows the Trouble I See |
NOTES
For more information about Maud Powell, check out: maudpowell.org. If you like what you've read and heard, you can buy the album (with the gigantic lyric book) at Cedille Records (it's currently on sale for $12.80).
You can also hear more American Virtuosa songs in the background of my video Cooking with Vu, Episode 2 - however Stage6 wasn't working the last time I checked.
12/01/2007 21:47:50 vu my♥posts 
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