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Vincent Persichetti's (1915 1987) twelve piano sonatas were written over a forty-three-year period. The first nine sonatas, written between 1939 and 1950, are strong, integral and varied works reflecting diverse approaches toward synthesizing a number of styles and idioms. In these pieces, the voices of Schoenberg, Hindemith, Copland, and Bartók and jazz are variously combined and distilled within Persichetti's own developing compositional language, with an increasing emergence of an original style that reaches a kind of initial culmination in the expansive Sonata No. 4. The last three sonatas were created over a much longer span of time than the first three, appearing in 1955, 1965, and 1982, respectively. Each of these last three sonatas represents dramatic culminations of Persichetti's musical universe. Throughout his output, Persichetti employs a very wide stylistic palette, embracing diatonic and modal tonalities, pandiatonicism, polytonality, and atonal languages, as well as other diverse musical approaches. Like all of his works, the piano sonatas are brilliantly crafted, with the opening material usually serving as a unifying element for the entire piece. There is a strong penchant for homophonic textures, a great rhythmic vitality in the fast movements, and often a sense of very affecting poignance in the slow movements. Persichetti also uses scintillating registral contrasts and juxtapositions brilliantly throughout all of his piano writing. This first-ever integral recording features six world-premieres in persuasively stylish performances.
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Reviews:
Finally!!!!!!
About six years ago I found a copy of the score of the complete piano sonata's by Persichetti among a mountain of disorganized music in the basement of Morris Library at SIUC. I had never heard any of his music but was familiar with the name through musical education.
I checked out the score and over the next six months fell in love with these neglected, underappreciated, and literally forgotten modern masterpieces. If you enjoy the piano music of Prokofiev, Bartok, or even Stravinsky, with a hint of old-school(not fusion) jazz--these are musts. The faster movements are bursting with vitality and wit, while the slower movements send you on a harmonic journey that will never leave you unsatisfied. Persichetti is a composer you can rely on not to take you somewhere without a reason, nor will he take you there without leaving a trail of breadcrumbs to get you back. This is not blimp-bloop music, nor will it ever, I repeat ever!, sound like non-sense. But they dont sound like Beethoven either. I would say, again, they are closest to Prokofiev's sonata's in format, with a pinch of the stravinsky serenade thrown in for good measure.
After playing through the scores, I couldnt believe there wasnt a recording of these works out there. Numbers 1,2,5,6,7, and 8 are all world premiere recordings. I have kept an eye out for these ever since and received them, I believe, on the first day they were available and have, in only one day, gone through the entire album several times.
To speak of the pianist(whom I have never heard of) he plays them with more grace and delicacy than I thought they had(again this might be due to my inclinations of their affinity with Prokofiev hence I took the more percussive take with much of it--though I do not have the score any more--Geoffrey Burleson(the pianist) is playing incredibly well and I have to admit to agreeing with his point of view over mine in most cases.
To summarize-if you are a fan of twentieth century piano music-before the avant-garde(though I am sure this will appeal to many of you too because much of it is in the academic spirit of your philosophy)I couldnt recommend this more. These pieces deserve a wide audience and it is not to often selections of this calibre are waiting to be discovered. |
Keyword: Music,
Description: Vincent Persichetti- Complete Piano Sonatas
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