Great American Sonatas

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Bolstered by the recording’s intimate, warm acoustic and wide dynamic range, Nathan Williamson, an excellent pianist, adds a touch of romance to the most granitic dissonances… — BBC Music Magazine, May 2017, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 30th Dec 2016
Catalogue No: SOMMCD0163
Label: Somm
Length: 78 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Copland: Piano Sonata (1939-41)

Work length25:25

$6.00

$7.75

$10.50

Nathan Williamson (piano)
Recorded: 10-11 January 2016
Recording Venue: The Menuhin Hall, United Kingdom

I. Molto moderato

Track length9:14

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

II. Vivace

Track length5:15

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Andante sostenuto

Track length10:56

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Bernstein: Piano Sonata

Work length17:29

$4.00

$5.15

$7.00

Nathan Williamson (piano)
Recorded: 10-11 January 2016
Recording Venue: The Menuhin Hall, United Kingdom

Track length6:03

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II.

Track length11:26

$3.00

$3.85

$5.25

Harrison, L: Piano Sonata No. 3

Work length12:08

$3.00

$3.90

$5.25

Nathan Williamson (piano)
Recorded: 10-11 January 2016
Recording Venue: The Menuhin Hall, United Kingdom

I. Slowish and Singing

Track length5:26

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

II. Fast and Rugged

Track length4:17

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

III. Very slow, very singing and solemn

Track length2:25

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Harrison, L: Largo Ostinato

Work length5:18

$1.00

$1.30

$1.75

Nathan Williamson (piano)

Ives, C: Three-page Sonata

Work length8:48

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Nathan Williamson (piano)

Ives, C: The Celestial Railroad

Work length9:06

$2.00

$2.60

$3.50

Nathan Williamson (piano)

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An exciting new release of American Piano Sonatas from SOMM this month, to remind us of 20th-century America's achievements in music as in so much else. SOMM's new collaboration with pianist Nathan Williamson who has been steeped in American music since his years as a student of piano and composition at Yale has produced an exhilarating disc brimming with dynamism and energy. The disc includes sonatas by four very different American composers writing under very different circumstances: Leonard Bernstein, a charismatic, ambitious all-round musician in his student years; Aaron Copland, an established master at the height of his powers; Lou Harrison, an inveterate experimentalist setting himself a new problem; and Charles Ives, a dogged individualist insisting on his own way of doing things. In each case, the composer chose not to fit his music into conventional forms, but to rethink the whole idea of the sonata. America is after all the land of the clean sheet, the fresh start – of making things fresh, exciting and new. Nathan, who leads a diverse and varied career as pianist, composer and artistic director studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Joan Havill and Malcolm Singer, at Oxford University with Robert Saxton, and at Yale with Martin Bresnick and Joan Panetti and American composer Ezra Laderman Dean of the Yale School of Music and President of American Academy of Arts and Letters, who died last year at the age of 90. Nathan has dedicated this recording to Laderman as a tribute to a great teacher whose far-reaching influence has inspired him to study the work of American composers in great depth. "There are few recordings of these works that equal this. The artist's technique and pianistic command allow him an ideal musical freedom. The effect is of intense commitment and an ultimate sense of poetry." - Bryce Morrison of Williamson's debut solo disc Brahms & Schubert: Late Piano Works, released in 2013. ‘Williamson's approach is visionary and romantic. But in this he is never crude, mannered or artificial. Rather one senses he has looked deep inside these works and explored their complex interior with thoughtful contemplation as well as love and empathy.’ - Donald Sturrock

Reviews

May 2017

Bolstered by the recording’s intimate, warm acoustic and wide dynamic range, Nathan Williamson, an excellent pianist, adds a touch of romance to the most granitic dissonances…

November/December 2017

Finely recorded, few more impressive discs of American piano music exist.

29th January 2017

this disc offers absorbing repertory in vivid performance.

Musical Opinion April 2017

This is an exceptional CD announcing a remarkable young British pianist…Williamson is a pianist of striking insight – and he is a resourceful composer too.

Classical Music December 2017

This superb recital shines like a beacon, illuminating the differing styles of Copland, Bernstein, Lous Harrison and Ives. All these works are given by Nathan Williamson with unerring mastery. Finely recorded, few more impressive discs of American piano music exist.

classicalsource.com November 2017

Williamson does a sterling job. He understands the mould-breaking environment of this repertory, and offers committed insight, opting for big, rounded bass sonorities and crystalline treble vistas.

Classical Ear May 2017

If the sonata represents the piano repertoire’s proverbial Everest, Nathan Williamson’s intelligently vivid recital suggests there is more than one way to scale its vertiginous heights.

Great American Sonatas

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