Pann: Piano Concerto & Dance Partita

Carter Pann (Composer), José Serebrier (Conductor), Barry Snyder (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Barry Snyder
• Conductor: José Serebrier
• Composer: Carter Pann
• Audio CD (February 22, 2000)
• SPARS Code: DDD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos American
• ASIN: B00004HYLM
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #221,526 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It's the Music, Stupid!, April 6, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Pann: Piano Concerto & Dance Partita (Audio CD)

The reactions of people who listen to Carter Pann's debut recording are likely to take the form of questions rather than comments: "Who's Carter Pann?" and "He's only twenty-eight?" and "Was that a snippet of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto I heard?" and "When is his *next* disc coming out?". Those tired of dutifully sitting through concerts that feature new music only to breathe a sigh of relief when it's time for Eine kleine Nachtmusik are in for a shock, a treat, and possibly a belly laugh or two.

Though it's clear that Pann's music can only be the work of a very serious composer, it is also tremendously funny--and that's the "ha-ha" kind, not the strange kind. (Well, maybe a bit of the latter.) There's nothing harder to convey in music than genuine wit and humor, and it's a trait that Pann's work has in plenty. (And lest anyone dismiss the composer as merely a musical class clown, also be prepared to be moved by music of great tenderness, exquisite intimacy, and pure, elemental exuberance.) There's a real sorcery in the way the composer assembles, for example, melodramatic baroqueries, gestures straight from the classical piano concerto, almost embarrassingly straightforward (for music written on the cusp of the twenty-first century, that is) folk dances, and television-music cliches into a single work (the Dance Partita) that is so simply *right* in its pacing, balance, and the only thing that really matters, the impression it makes. If you chuckle as you listen to this disc, as I do, it will just as likely be a reaction to the music's sense of don't-look-back brashness as from its sly and ever-acute parodistic sense.

The greatness of these pieces, especially the aforementioned Partita and the Piano Concerto, lies in the fact that given their wildly disparate elements, they should by all expectations be a chaotic, muddled mess. Instead, the confidence and mastery with which this cornucopia of contrasts and oppositions are bound together into an effective whole suggests the work of a striking and truly original compositional talent. With the world of new music flooded with works that range from mediocre to unremarkably competent, this is by no means an inconsiderable achievement.

It's new, it's a knockout, and it's even on a budget label: Do yourself a favor and impress your friends by being able to say that you came to know Pann's music *before* he hit the big time. Move over, Elliott--new music has a new Carter.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful surprise from a young composer, March 19, 2000

By 

F. Behrens "Frank Behrens" (Keene, NH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pann: Piano Concerto & Dance Partita (Audio CD)

One of the newest additions to the excellent American Classics series on Naxos label is Carter Pann's <Piano Concerto, Dance Partita> (8.559043) that also includes his "Deux Sejours" and "Two Portraits of Barcelona." Since these were written between 1994 and 1997, I will leave it to the philosophers to debate if such recent works can properly be called "classics" if that word implies "having withstood the test of time." Granted Pann uses "classical" forms--the concerto, the partita--and a "Romantic" one--the tone poem--and granted one would never call this "popular" music, I still reserve judgment to see if the great promise this young composer shows is not just "a flash in the pan."

Conductor Jose Serebrier writes that Pann's compositions stand out "for their boldness and outrageousness" while his orchestration technique "seemed far advanced for someone still in school." Of course you will hear echoes of Satie, Stravinsky, Respighi, and many others; but these quotations are quite deliberate and "well-planned, distilled through the composer's special voice."

Consider, for example, that he names the movements of his Piano Concerto "Pina Colada," "Nocturne," "Your Touch," "Blues," and "The Concert." On the other hand, with a composer like Satie, some of his piano pieces never quite come up to the promise of their humorous titles. I was not, however, in any way disappointed with what I heard on this CD. The "four "Baroque" movements of his "Dance Partita" certainly show their 1990s origins as well as their 17th century inspirations. And the very authentic "Bullfight" that ends the program is impressive in its literal Granados-like power.

The Czech State Philharmonic, Brno does the music justice. Highly recommended.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hats off, gentlemen!, May 21, 2000

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Pann: Piano Concerto & Dance Partita (Audio CD)

Carter Pann is a hugely talented 28-year-old composer, student of, among others, William Albright and William Bolcom at the University of Michigan. A CD of his music, conducted by José Serebrier and stupendously played by the Czech State Philharmonic, Brno, on Naxos 8.559043, has just been released. It includes: Piano Concerto (1996/7), Barry Snyder, piano; Deux séjours (1994;Dance Partita (1995), Barry Snyder, piano obbligato; Two Portraits of Barcelona (1994)

The overall comment I would make about Pann's music is that he is a master orchestrator, a brilliant pasticheur, a sly practitioner of musical humor, and that he is capable of some of the most lusciously melodic and moving slow music.

The piano concerto has five movements. The first, entitled Piña Colada (yes, inspired by that silly pop song of some years ago), is a loose-jointed Caribbean-influenced piece that reminds me a lot of Michael Torke in his slaphappy mode. The second, Nocturne, is quiet, slow, Debussyesque. The third, Your Touch, is for solo piano and sounds an awful lot like jazz pianist Denny Zeitlin's smoky classic 'Quiet Now.' This is a high recommendation; it's got a gorgeous tune and luscious harmonies. The fourth, Blues, sounds like updated jazzy Bernstein in its dislocated accents, stride bass, throwaway virtuosity. The fifth, Concert, is a hilarious knockoff of just about every classical concerto cliché and even quotes, almost note for note, a bridge passage from Beethoven's Emperor Concerto, before exploding into one of those hilarious never-ending classical-era tonic-dominant endings. I found myself laughing out loud.

Deux séjours (Two journeys) are evocations of two small towns - one in France, one in Italy - and are intentionally modeled on the orchestrations by Debussy of Satie's 'Gymnopédies'. Quiet gardens, civility, serenity, lovely melodies.

Dance Partita is an eight-movement (actually four movements and four ritornellos) orchestral suite, with piano obbligato, based on baroque models. Stravinsky in his neoclassic music - think 'Jeux de cartes' or, better, 'Pulcinella' - comes to mind. Also Bolcom's 'Orphée-Sérénade' (an under-recognized masterpiece) is evoked. Brilliantly done. One's toe taps until tripped up by the irregular time signatures. Delicious.

Two Portraits of Barcelona. The first, 'Antoni Gaudí's Cathedral' is a six minute tone-poem that builds from a mysterious opening, evoking the religious grandeur of the Cathedral, to a wicked Rouse-ian description of Gaudí's wild architecture. The second, 'The Bullfight', starts with mock-heroic Spanish bullfight music, complete with trumpet duo flourishes, and builds to a frenetic danza, ending the CD with high spirits and this listener with a desire for more. ¡Olé!

Lest it sound like I think Pann has no 'sound' of his own, I want to emphasize that this man has the goods and is discovering a voice that I predict will be increasingly listened to.