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Childhood Memories - Music For Younger Pianists / Arzruni


Release Date: 09/24/2002 
Label:  New World Records   Catalog #: 80590   Spars Code: DDD 
Composer:  Robert Starer,  Ned Rorem,  Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee,  Ben Weber,   ... 
Performer:  Sahan Arzruni
Number of Discs: 1 
Recorded in: Stereo 
Length: 1 Hours 17 Mins. 

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Notes and Editorial Reviews


Are you a piano teacher looking for easy yet interesting pieces to assign your students? Have you had your fill of the Anna Magdalena Notebook, Schumann's Album for the Young, or Bartók's For Children and Mikrokosmos? Then you've come to the right disc. Here are 10 virtually unknown yet delightful suites of miniatures penned by a broad range of eminent American composers. Amy Beach's Children's Carnival is typical of her Romantic parlor-room style, and its tricky passagework will keep students honest. Contemporary techniques involving chord clusters, bi-tonality, wide-leaping intervals, and new ways of pedaling characterize Robert Starer's Sketches in Color.


Miriam Read more Gideon's Altered Steps to Altered States offer similar modernism on an easier technical level, while Louise Talma's Soundshots are delicate, smartly contrasted neo-classical jewels. George Perle's knotty Modal Suite (modal by the skin of its atonal teeth!) might be described as a bridge between Bartók's more difficult Mikrokosmos and Schoenberg's Six Little Pieces Op. 19. I like the brash rhythms and urban zest of William Mayer's Subway in the Sunshine and Other Memories. And who'd guess that the charming, snappy Four Pieces that close the disc actually were written by as uncompromising a modernist as Roger Sessions?


Such repertoire, however, is best served when interpreted by a mature artist possessing seasoned, adult-size fingers. Enter Sahan Arzruni, whose discography suggests that he may well be a "children's piano music" specialist. He certainly plays these works with all the love, attention to detail, tone color, and character they deserve--and his annotations are both thorough and informative. Let's hope this disc will inspire younger generations of American composers to write quality piano music for student consumption.
--Jed Distler, ClassicsToday.com Read less

Works on This Recording

1.
Sketches in Color by Robert Starer
Performer:  Sahan Arzruni (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1963; USA 
2.
A Quiet Afternoon by Ned Rorem
Performer:  Sahan Arzruni (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1948; USA 
3.
Toccatinas (3) by Dianne Goolkasian Rahbee
Performer:  Sahan Arzruni (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: USA 
4.
Lyric Piece for Piano by Ben Weber
Performer:  Sahan Arzruni (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1956; USA 
5.
Subway in the Sunshine and Other Memories by William Mayer
Performer:  Sahan Arzruni (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1968/1993; USA 
6.
Altered Steps to Altered States by Miriam Gideon
Performer:  Sahan Arzruni (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1953/1991; USA 
7.
Modal Suite for Piano by George Perle
Performer:  Sahan Arzruni (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1940; USA 
8.
Little Suite by Lou Harrison
Performer:  Sahan Arzruni (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1949; USA 
9.
Soundshots by Louise Talma
Performer:  Sahan Arzruni (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1944-1974; USA 
10.
Pieces for Children (4): Little Piece by Roger Sessions
Performer:  Sahan Arzruni (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1939; USA 
11.
Pieces for Children (4): Waltz for Brenda by Roger Sessions
Performer:  Sahan Arzruni (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1936; USA 
12.
Pieces for Children (4): Scherzino by Roger Sessions
Performer:  Sahan Arzruni (Piano)
Period: 20th Century 
Written: 1935; USA 
13.
Children's Carnival, Op. 25 by Amy Marcy Beach
Performer:  Sahan Arzruni (Piano)
Period: Romantic 
Written: 1894; USA 

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