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Romantic Connections: Timothy & Nancy LeRoi Nickel - Duo Pianists

$15.95
SKU
CD114
Arsis Audio
More Information
SKUCD114
Voicing & InstrumentsCD Recording
Reviews

The title of the disc from the Nickel’s duo – “Romantic Connections” – points to the common ethos of their selections, each in its own way an expression of mid-19th Century German romanticism, including familiar works by Schumann and Mendelssohn. …Goetz had an individual voice, and his Sonata is an attractive piece, with a mysterious and dramatic first movement, a lyrical second and an expressive (if somewhat incoherent) third. …These performances, recorded in good sound in 1983, are idiomatic and nicely paced. -Morin, American Record Guide, Sept./Oct. 1999

PublisherArsis Audio
ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
12 vierhändige Klavierstücke für kleine und grosse Kinder. Op 85
12 Four-Hand Piano Pieces for Little and Big Children
1. Geburtstagsmarsch
Birthday March
7. Turniermarsch
Tournament March
2. Bärentanz
Bear Dance
8. Reigen
Round Dance
3. Gartenmelodie
Garden Melody
9. Am Springbrunnen
At the Fountain
4. Beim Kränzewinden
Twining Wreaths
10. Versteckens
Hide and Seek
5. Kroatenmarsch
Croatian March
11. Gespenstermärchen
Ghost Stories
6. Trauer
Mourning
12. Abendlied
Evening Song
HERMANN GOETZ (1840-1876)
Sonata in G Minor, Opus 17
13. I. Langsam (Slow) / sehr lebhaft (Very Lively) / sehr langsam (Very Slow)
14. II. Mässig bewegt (Moderately moving)
15. III. Langsam (Slow) / graziös und nicht zu rasch (Gracious and not so fast)
FELIX MENDELSSOHN (1809-1847)
16. Allegro Brillante, Opus 92
Total playing time: 59'42"

Hermann Goetz was a musical jack-of-all-trades. He was successful composer, operatic producer, orchestra conductor, church organist and choral director, music critic, and distinguished pianist, highly regarded by his mentor, Hans von Bülow. Goetz produced many well-crafted, substantial works in his short creative life, lived under the constant shadow of incurable tuberculosis. His solo piano music enjoyed considerable success,and his two operas, Taming of the Shrew and Francesca von Rimini, have been revived from time to time. It was his Symphony in F that so delighted George Bernard Shaw. Goetz's name appears often in the three volumes of Shaw's published musical criticisms. In his inimitable, opinionated and overstated way, Shaw wrote that "He [Goetz] has the charm of Schubert wtihout his brainlessness, the refinement of Mendelssohn with his limitations and timid gentility, Schumann's sense of harmonic expression without his laboriousness, shortcomings, and dependence on external poetic stimulus; while as to unembarrassed mastery of the materials of music, showing itself in the Mozartean grace and expressiveness of his polyphony, he leaves all three of them simply nowhere. Brahms, who alone touches him in mere brute musical facility, is a dolt in comparison to him." This is quite a vote of confidence from a respected critic of the day who was also a trained musician.

Originally recorded in 1983 in analog for Desto Records (vinyl never released) on the Imperial Grotrian Piano at Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oreogon
Recording Engineer: Fred Armentrout, Portland, Oregon
Editing & transfer to digital:

Fred Armentrout
Mastering for CD: Robert Schuneman, ARSIS Audio, Boston, MA