Late to school

Of the five Russian composers of the Russian national school (also called "innovators", the mighty five", "the mighty handful"), Mili Alexejewitsch Balakirev (1837 - 1910) was the circle's ruling spirit and its - sometimes dictatorial - teacher of composition (to whose categorical demands, among other things, we may ascribe the astonishing artistic output achieved by a Borodin or a Mussorgsky). The sole professionalism, which he compared with musical academicism. And yet one can observe in his work a curious sense of frustration in the rounding - off and completion of his compositions. Typical of Balakirev's inspiration, which was quickly stimulated but then tailed off under the pressure of his own hypercritical standards, are the varying fortunes of his sonata in B minor, the composition of which was spread over about 50 years.

Lista utworów:
Islamei (Balakirew Mili)

"This work, I am attempting to have the audience listen to the piano in a new and very intense way - to concentrate on the piano itself. Each of the first five movements is a kind of etude for the listener in which various, relatively isolated areas of pianistic expression are explored. For example, in the second movement the performer is to build up the kind of tremolo practiced by the 19th century virtuoso pianists but, here, carrying the idea even further to the maximum level of which the piano is capable. When this level is achieved, the performer plays a kind of recitative as the piano sound dies away and makes a faint but definite "cut - off" just before the sound becomes inaudible."

Lista utworów:
Sonata No. 1 (Maves David)

Stephen Covello jest amerykańskim kompozytorem zamieszkującym Central Byack w Nowym Yorku. Studia kompozycji ukończył na Uniwersytecie w Pensylwanii. Jest pedagogiem, oraz dyrygentem orkiestry szkoły muzycznej, dlatego też jego twórczość obejmuje zarówno fortepianowe utwory o charakterze pedagogicznym, jak również kompozycje orkiestralne. Niniejsza publikacja zawiera 9 utworów solowych Covello dla średnio zaawansowanych pianistów.

Niniejsze trzy Bagatele fortepianowe zostały zlecone Peterowi Liebersonowi przez Andrewa Wolfa, a po raz pierwszy wykonane przez Petera Serkina na koncercie w Szkole Muzycznej All-Newton, w listopadzie 1985 roku. Bagatele dedykowane są Peterowi Serkinowi. Średni łączny czas trwania utworów: 10'.