Notes and Editorial Reviews
Frank Glazer's rich and varied musical life as touring virtuoso, teacher, music director, television host, annotator, and much else is enough for five careers. The 91-year-old pianist's long resume includes everything from studies with Schnabel and Schoenberg to playing in vaudeville houses and, believe it or not, the Icelandic premiere of Brahms' second piano concerto. At 85, he recorded a recital of once-fashionable/now-frowned-upon encores, the type of repertoire Arthur Loesser used to call "cream of corn". Few pianists today have a genuine feeling for such pieces, save, of course, Earl Wild (Glazer's slightly younger contemporary) and perhaps Stephen Hough or Marc-André Hamelin. However, Glazer's beautiful, robust tone
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and innate charm are exactly what this music needs.
The disc opens with a curvaceous and ravishingly sung out account of Mendelssohn's Spring Song, followed by Alfred Grünfeld's pretty if overlong Romanze and Grieg's Papillon, which is fuller in body and less cameo-like than we often hear. Glazer pays heed to the inner voices in Godowsky's Alt-Wien, although it doesn't quite attain the tonal magic of Shura Cherkassky's recently reissued 1974 recording. Although Sinding's Rustle of Spring, Moszkowski's E major Waltz, and Rubinstein's Melody in F would benefit from a lighter touch and more rippling accompanimental figures, Glazer's legato scales and subtle tonal shadings--using remarkably little pedal--in Liadov's Musical Snuff-Box are worthy of the old Hofmann and Rosenthal recordings.
Rubinstein's Kamennoi-Ostrow moves too slowly to sustain the music's bland harmonic appeal, while Paderewski's Menuet in G and Macdowell's Witches Dance are a shade heavy-handed and lacking in élan. Glazer accommodates the prevalent thick textures of Dohnanyi's "Nalia" transcription by taking overly slow tempos, yet the pianist's sustaining power prevents them from sounding labored. On the other hand, Glazer's fingers sound 60 years younger in Stephen Heller's fluffy transcription of Schubert's "The Trout", while Liszt's Third Liebestraume is direct, elegant, and free of treacle. All told, a lovely disc.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com
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Works on This Recording
1.
Songs without words, vol 5, Op. 62: no 6, Andante grazioso in A major "Spring Song" by Felix Mendelssohn
Performer:
Frank Glazer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1842; Germany
Venue: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Length: 2 Minutes 23 Secs.
Notes: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (06/12/2000 - 06/14/2000)
2.
Romanze by Alfred Gruenfeld
Performer:
Frank Glazer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Venue: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Length: 6 Minutes 20 Secs.
Notes: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (06/12/2000 - 06/14/2000)
3.
Triakontameron: no 11, Alt Wien by Leopold Godowsky
Performer:
Frank Glazer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1920; USA
Venue: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Length: 2 Minutes 36 Secs.
Notes: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (06/12/2000 - 06/14/2000)
4.
Lyric Pieces (6), Book 3, Op. 43: no 1, Butterfly by Edvard Grieg
Performer:
Frank Glazer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1886; Norway
Venue: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Length: 2 Minutes 5 Secs.
Notes: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (06/12/2000 - 06/14/2000)
5.
Pieces (6) for Piano, Op. 32: no 3, Rustles of spring by Christian Sinding
Performer:
Frank Glazer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1896; Germany
Venue: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Length: 2 Minutes 22 Secs.
Notes: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (06/12/2000 - 06/14/2000)
6.
Waltz for Piano "Valse brillante" by Moritz Moszkowski
Performer:
Frank Glazer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: Germany
Venue: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Length: 8 Minutes 26 Secs.
Notes: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (06/12/2000 - 06/14/2000)
7.
Rocky Island, Op. 10: no 22, Rêve angélique by Anton Rubinstein
Performer:
Frank Glazer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1853-1854; Russia
Venue: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Length: 8 Minutes 45 Secs.
Notes: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (06/12/2000 - 06/14/2000)
8.
Musical snuffbox, Op. 32 by Anatole Liadov
Performer:
Frank Glazer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: by 1893; Russia
Venue: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Length: 2 Minutes 9 Secs.
Notes: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (06/12/2000 - 06/14/2000)
9.
Miscellanea for Piano, Op. 16: no 7, Menuet by Ignace Jan Paderewski
Performer:
Frank Glazer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: circa 1888
Venue: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Length: 4 Minutes 21 Secs.
Notes: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (06/12/2000 - 06/14/2000)
10.
Fantasiestücke (2), Op. 17: no 2, Hexentanz by Edward MacDowell
Performer:
Frank Glazer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1883; Germany
Venue: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Length: 3 Minutes 13 Secs.
Notes: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (06/12/2000 - 06/14/2000)
11.
Mélodies de Schubert: Die Forelle, Op 33 by Stephen Heller
Performer:
Frank Glazer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: by 1844; Paris, France
Venue: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Length: 5 Minutes 42 Secs.
Notes: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (06/12/2000 - 06/14/2000)
12.
La source: Waltz by Léo Delibes
Performer:
Frank Glazer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1866; France
Venue: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Length: 10 Minutes 10 Secs.
Notes: Arranger: Ernö von Dohnányi.
Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (06/12/2000 - 06/14/2000)
13.
Melodies (2) for Piano, Op. 3: no 1 in F major by Anton Rubinstein
Performer:
Frank Glazer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1852; Russia
Venue: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Length: 4 Minutes 54 Secs.
Notes: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (06/12/2000 - 06/14/2000)
14.
Canzone napolitana notturno, S 248a by Franz Liszt
Performer:
Frank Glazer (Piano)
Period: Romantic
Written: 1842; Weimar, Germany
Venue: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine
Length: 5 Minutes 6 Secs.
Notes: Bates College, Lewiston, Maine (06/12/2000 - 06/14/2000)
Featured Sound Samples
Pieces for Piano, op 32 (Sinding): No 3: Rustles of Spring
Songs Without Words, vol 5, op 62 (Mendelssohn): No 6: "Spring Song"
Die Forelle, mélodie de Schubert, op 33 (Heller)
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