This two-CD set has over one hundred fifty minutes of masterworks by Franz Schubert, the great classical composer who emerged in the wake of Beethoven's death as the supreme creator of art song, influencing major composers in the nineteenth century such as Schumann, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Wolf, and Mahler. It was a natural consequence that Schubert's piano music would embrace the same melodic contours affording pianists opportunities to contribute personal colors using the voice as a model.
Michael Coonrod has dedicated nearly four decades to the performance of the repertoire assembled here, recorded in January and August of 2006. The music fuses passion, elegance, adventurous harmonic pathways--all within a refinement of pulse and articulation. This is why Schubert is considered a pivotal figure between the Classical and Romantic periods in music history.
In an era that did not have the massive number of concerts that we enjoy, composers frequently had only a single reading of new symphonic works, or none at all. (The great C Major Symphony by Schubert was not heard until 1839, eleven years after Schubert's death.) As a result, composers would make transcriptions for solo piano or piano duet, played in homes and other informal settings. One of the qualities of Franz Liszt as a composer was to transform opera themes and art songs into piano pieces that remained faithful in mood to the original, but utilizing the idiomatic nature of the piano. The "lieder" heard on this recording are four of his best transcriptions.
Albert James Fillmore became a friend and colleague to numerous music lovers throughout his long career as a pianist, composer, and teacher. He was one of Nadia Boulanger's students in France just prior to World War II. I had been aware of his beautiful music for some time, and had even played his preludes in my 1994 concerts ("The Muse of Chopin") at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, Poland. Consequently, I felt a need to promote his music after his death in 1996. My idea was to locate representative compositions and create an anthology of high-quality recordings so that people who knew Albert, as well as those young musicians who never had the opportunity of knowing him, could appreciate his work. It was a logical extension for my wife Jean--who helped care for Albert as he recovered from knee surgery, and has always enjoyed writing--to compile his biography based upon a lengthy diary he kept, in addition to recollections and stories about him.
Furthermore, it seemed appropriate to build a non-profit endeavor so that funds from the sale of this product could be distributed to composition students in Mr. Fillmore's honor.
The following artists have joined us in this venture: David Holland, conductor of the Interlochen Arts Academy String Orchestra with Thomas Bara, organist; Roberta Veazey, Voice Faculty at The University of Evansville, Indiana; and Julie Ann White, conductor of the City Center Children's Chorus in Owensboro, Kentucky with Diane Earle, organ accompanist.
This is a special edition recording of cherished classical encores commemorating the fifty-year career of pianist MICHAEL COONROD. Consequently, such personal repertoire invites program notes which emerge as a fusion of stories and biographical material--a kind of musical autobiography. For example, several performances were influenced by Lucien Hut--teacher, mentor, friend--and it is appropriate that this entire CD would be a tribute to this professional Dutch musician.
Furthermore, these hand-picked favorites flow smoothly from the warm lyricism in the opening Bach pieces, to the passion of the Spanish/Latin triumvirate and the excitement in the Rachmaninoff selections. This seventy-minute recital has been crafted for its diversity as well as its intense, expressive qualities, much like strategically-placed courses in a gourmet meal.
Michael Coonrod has been a piano faculty member at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Michigan for twenty-nine years. During this time, he has developed the potential in hundreds of students and has presented annual piano recital tours devoted to music with a central concept such as all-Schubert, Schumann, Bartok, Impressionistic, and all Spanish-Latin American programs. In 1994, he presented twenty concerts of music by contemporary American composers, culminating in Poland, where he performed at the Chopin Academy of Music in Warsaw, and the Music Conservatory in Poznan. More recently, he has performed Mozart's Concerto No. 14, KV 414, Beethoven's Concerto No. 4 Op. 58, and Bartok's Concerto No. 2. He has played for the American Liszt Society, the Eastman School of Music, and the Peabody Contemporary Music Ensemble.
His early training came from the Dutch pianist Lucien Hut, after which he earned his Master and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, part of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with George Walker and Konrad Wolff (biographer and student of Artur Schnabel).
Michael Coonrod has also recorded "The Muse of Chopin," (Twenty-four Preludes in the Romantic Style) as part of a book/CD entitled THE LIFE & MUSIC OF ALBERT JAMES FILLMORE, an anthology of music for piano, soprano, children's choir, and string orchestra with organ solo.
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