Claire Huangci – Made in USA: Gershwin, Beach & Barber (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:17:33 minutes | 2,49 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Presented as ‘An Experiment in Modern Music’ when it was premiered in 1924, Rhapsody in Blue made George Gershwin famous, and he soon set to work on a version for solo piano, recorded here by Claire Huangci. In her first solo disc for Alpha Classics, Claire was keen to celebrate this centenary alongside her roots in America, where she was born, studied music and made her debut as a concert artist at the age of nine. The brilliant improviser and transcriber Earl Wild (1915-2010) took Gershwin’s songs (Liza, Fascinatin’ Rhythm, Somebody Loves Me, I Got Rhythm, Embraceable You, Oh, Lady Be Good, The Man I Love) to form the basis of his Seven Virtuoso Etudes for solo piano. Equally virtuosic is the Op. 26 Sonata by Samuel Barber, whom Vladimir Horowitz (who premiered the work in Havana in December 1949) regarded as one of the few Americans capable of writing for the piano. The New Hampshire-born composer Amy Beach took her inspiration from the folk music of both the New World and the Balkans, while retaining her harmonic language inherited from the Romantics. Her Variations Op. 60 (1904) bear witness to these influences.
Tracklist:
1-01. Claire Huangci – Rhapsody in Blue (Solo Piano Version) (15:16)
1-02. Claire Huangci – Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60: Thema. Adagio (01:10)
1-03. Claire Huangci – Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60: Variation I. Più mosso (00:51)
1-04. Claire Huangci – Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60: Variation II. Maestoso (01:07)
1-05. Claire Huangci – Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60: Variation III. Allegro ma non troppo (00:50)
1-06. Claire Huangci – Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60: Variation IV. Andante alla Barcarola (01:32)
1-07. Claire Huangci – Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60: Variation V. Largo con molta espressione (02:39)
1-08. Claire Huangci – Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60: Variation VI. Quasi Fantasia – Allegro all’ Ongarese (02:04)
1-09. Claire Huangci – Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60: Variation VII. Vivace – Valse lento (02:01)
1-10. Claire Huangci – Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60: Variation VIII. Con vigore – Lento calmato (02:08)
1-11. Claire Huangci – Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60: Marcia funebre (04:25)
1-12. Claire Huangci – Variations on Balkan Themes, Op. 60: Cadenza. Grave – Quasi fantasia (05:46)
1-13. Claire Huangci – Piano Sonata in E-Flat Minor, Op. 26: I. Allegro energico (07:16)
1-14. Claire Huangci – Piano Sonata in E-Flat Minor, Op. 26: II. Allegro vivace e leggero (02:11)
1-15. Claire Huangci – Piano Sonata in E-Flat Minor, Op. 26: III. Adagio mesto (05:03)
1-16. Claire Huangci – Piano Sonata in E-Flat Minor, Op. 26: IV. Fuga. Allegro con spirito (04:30)
1-17. Claire Huangci – 7 Virtuoso Etudes after Gershwin: No. 1, Liza (03:06)
1-18. Claire Huangci – 7 Virtuoso Etudes after Gershwin: No. 2, Somebody Loves me (02:54)
1-19. Claire Huangci – 7 Virtuoso Etudes after Gershwin: No. 3, The Man I Love (02:27)
1-20. Claire Huangci – 7 Virtuoso Etudes after Gershwin: No. 4, Embraceable You (02:47)
1-21. Claire Huangci – 7 Virtuoso Etudes after Gershwin: No. 5, Lady be Good (03:35)
1-22. Claire Huangci – 7 Virtuoso Etudes after Gershwin: No. 6, I Got Rhythm (02:11)
1-23. Claire Huangci – 7 Virtuoso Etudes after Gershwin: No. 7, Fasinatin’ Rhythm (01:34)
