Copland: Before the LP (1928-49)

Contents

The Early Recordings C 1928 – 1949 76:29 1. Le chat et la souris (Scherzo humoristique) (1920) (3:28) Recorded 1928 Ampico B Reproducing Piano Roll #68153 2. Piano Variations (1930) (10:58) Recorded April 2, 1935 in New York City Columbia 68320/21-D in album X-48 (XCO 17111-2, 17112-1 & 17113-1) 3. Vitebsk (1929) (11:36) Ivor Karman (violin); David Freed (cello) Recorded April 5, 1935 in New York City Columbia 68741/42-D in album X-68 (XCO 17117-2, 17118-1 & 17119-1) Two Pieces for Violin and Piano (1926) 4. No. 1: Nocturne (4:36) 5. No. 2: Ukulele Serenade (3:45) Jacques Gordon (violin) Recorded April 22, 1935 in New York City Columbia 68321-D & 68742-D (XCO 17326-1 & 17325-1) 6. Vocalise (1928) (4:09) Ethel Luening (soprano) Recorded 1935 in New York City New Music Quarterly Recordings Vol. 3, No. 1 (R-574) 7. Danzón Cubano (1942) (6:58) Leo Smit (piano) Recorded 1947 in New York City Concert Hall AL (CHS 136/7) Sonata for Violin and Piano (1943) (18:21) 8. I Andante semplice

1. II Lento (4:24)
2. III Allegretto giusto (6:41) Louis Kaufman (violin) Recorded 1947 in New York City Concert Hall album C-10 (CHS 356/60) Two Pieces for Violin and Piano (1926)
3. No. 1: Nocturne (4:31) Louis Kaufman (violin) Recorded 1947 in New York City Concert Hall album C-10 (CHS 361) Four Piano Blues (1948) (8:24)
4. No. 1: Freely Poetic (for Leo Smit) (2:13)
5. No. 2: Soft and Languid (for Andor Foldes) (2:20)
6. No. 3: Muted and Drugged (for William Kapell) (2:36)
7. No. 4: With Bounce (for John Kirkpatrick) (1:15) Recorded May 23, 1949 in London Decca K 2372 (AR 13657-1 & 13658-1)

Aaron Copland was active as a pianist throughout most of his musical career, giving up piano performance only after 1970, when he concentrated on conducting. He continued to record performances of his own music through much of the LP era, although only as a collaborator in chamber works and his Piano Concerto.

The present CD collects for the first time all of Copland’s pre-LP recordings. While most of them have been issued on LP or CD before, they have never all been available in one place. Further, they are now presented in splendid new transfers by Mark Obert-Thorn, who was able to locate copies of all of the originals including the ultra-scarce New Music Quarterly side. The piano roll of “The Cat and the Mouse” is published in any audio recording for the first time.

Copland said he had never performed any other composer’s piano music in public. But his technique was strong enough to support the powerful performance of his Piano Variations and, later, of his Piano Concerto. This restoration of his earlier piano recordings is a valuable document of a major composer showing how his own music should go. His collaborators in these recordings include two major violinists, Jacques Gordon and Louis Kaufman, and Copland’s long-time friend and collaborator, the composer and pianist Leo Smit.