DAVID DEL TREDICI: Gotham Glory – Complete Piano Works Vol. 1 – Marc Peloquin, p. – Naxos American Classics

by | Jan 23, 2013 | Classical CD Reviews

DAVID DEL TREDICI:  Gotham Glory – Complete Piano Works Vol. 1 – Marc Peloquin, p. – Naxos American Classics  8.559680 ***:

Known best for his renditions of Lewis Caroll’s  Alice,  Pulitzer prize winner David Del Tredici is unabashedly romantic,  yet firmly grounded in the 20-21st century  musical idiom. He has been a New Yorker for the last forty years. In 2003 he composed a numerous solo piano pieces. In 2004, he began an artistic collaboration with Marc Peloquin resulting in a commission (S/M Ballade), as well as  performances and the recording of Del Tredici’s complete piano works.

This CD is Volume 1 of the complete piano music of David Del Tredici.  Gotham Glory (Four scenes of NYC-2004) is an impressive pianistic tone poem and the longest of the five piano pieces on the CD. It is in four scenes: W Village Morning  (a prelude), Museum Piece (with fugue), Missing Towers(after 9/11/2001) and Woollman Rink, a virtuoso fantasy on Waldteufel’s  The Skater’s Waltz. Each scene portrays the composer’s feelings associated with his “having lived and loved in New York for more than forty years”.

Aeolian Ballade is made up of a prelude following by a stunning fugue, with reference in later pages to the opening prelude. S/M Ballade commissioned by Marc Peloquin in 2006, is described by the composer as a “ twelve-minute two-part pianistic terror” with featured F major-minor combat. Ballad in Yellow (1997) is s piano transcription of an earlier Del Tredici song written to a Garcia Lorca poem.

Marc Peloquin’s performances of these Del Tredici piano pieces are devotional and technically dazzling. The recording made in NYC in 2009 is a beauty. It was produced by David Del Tredici and Louis Brown, engineered by Mr. Brown. It is highly recommended for lovers of New York and romantic piano music.

—Ronald  Legum

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