Imbrie: Requiem/Piano Concerto 3

Andrew Imbrie (Composer), George Rothman (Conductor), Riverside Symphony (Orchestra), Alan Feinberg (Performer), Lisa Saffer (Performer)

Product Details

• Performer: Alan Feinberg, Lisa Saffer
• Orchestra: Riverside Symphony
• Conductor: George Rothman
• Composer: Andrew Imbrie
• Audio CD (August 17, 1999)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bridge
• ASIN: B00000JWL0
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #324,873 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This release offers world premiere recordings of two major compositions by the masterful Andrew Imbrie, a student of Roger Sessions at Princeton. Imbrie's Requiem was written as a response to the sudden death of his son in1981. It is a deeply moving work of prodigious accomplishment, setting traditional liturgy alongside commentary in the form of poetry by William Blake. It may be considered one of the few truly great 20th Century American choral works. His Piano Concerto No. 3 was composed for Alan Feinberg and the Riverside Symphony, who perform the piece here. It occupied two years of the composer's life, and contains a wealth of rich musical thought. The opening is suggested by the insistent background of taxi horns in New York City, according to the composer, and the high intensity of the work, and this performance, constantly remind the listener of the musical energy levels of our urban envious. This recording was a 2000 Grammy Nominee.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Knotty but accessible music, November 18, 2002

By	J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Andrew Imbrie, known to me before only for his opera based on Wallace Stegner's novel 'Angle of Repose', is represented on this disc by two large works. The Requiem, composed in response to the death of his son John in 1981, is a work written to a text that combines the ancient text of the Mass for the Dead with more modern poetry (Blake, Donne, George Herbert) that comments on death. It is a heartfelt work, written in Imbrie's knotty but melodious style, and feelingly performed by soprano Lisa Saffer and the New York Virtuoso Singers, a group dedicated to singing contemporary choral music. The Riverside Symphony (that's Riverside, New York City, not California) does a superb job of playing Imbrie's rhythmically complex music.

The third Piano Concerto, commissioned by the Riverside Symphony for pianist Alan Feinberg, that indefatigable champion of modern piano music [just yesterday I heard him play the newly 'assembled' "Emerson" Concerto of Charles Ives], grows out of chords reminiscent, Imbrie says, of the New York City taxi horns of his childhood; he goes on to point out that they are nothing like Gershwin's Paris taxi horns in 'An American in Paris.' The slow second movement is a nocturne that has a lighter, playful middle section. The last movement is a rondo that builds in intensity to a climax that calls back the taxi horns of the first movement. No one but an American could have written this concerto, and it is fitting that a New York pianist and a New York orchestra have made this superb recording.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Overflows with Energy, Very Emotional, February 29, 2004

By	Sam A. Mawn-Mahlau (Winchester, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The incredible burden of writing a requiem for your own 18 year old son must be overwhelming. Imbrie seems to tackle and invoke much of the Western cannon looking for the tones, solemn yet jarring, needed to express his deep grief and prayerful hope on the loss of his son.

Imbrie writes a formal, traditional work in many ways, but tearing at this work is a subtext that is informed by more modern music that is less tonal and melodic. The tension between the two drives the emotion and energy in this work. Deeply moving.