 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Coast to Coast featuring This
CD also includes works by: |
|
|
Purchase |
|
|
|
Read
about |
 |
|
Listen: |
||
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Purchase the score
and part
|
|
|
|
Alex Shapiro had a great time exploring the most beautiful qualities of the F tuba in Music for Two Big Instruments, commissioned by Los Angeles Philharmonic principal tubist Norman Pearson and pianist Cynthia Bauhof-Williams, and recorded here by Alan Baer, Principal tubist of the New York Philharmonic, and pianist Brad Haag on the new CD, Coast to Coast. |
|
Music for Two Big Instruments expands audience's popular perception of traditional tuba music by offering soaring, lyrical melodic lines, as well as a few faster-than-often-thought-possible passages.
The piece has been heard in concerts from many tubists across the U.S. and in Europe, and was featured in 2001 at both the Annual National Conference of the College Music Society and the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music's New Music and Art Festival.
|
Alex and Alan Baer discussing the score during the recording session
|
|
Review
|
Coast to Coast
"It has arrived! The eagerly anticipated first Solo CD of the new Principal Tuba with the New York Philharmonic, Alan Baer.
On this disc, Alan shows us all his musicality, his very good and projected sound and also his excellent taste in the diferent music styles from diferent countries and times that he has chosen for this album.
Alex Shapiro’s "Music for Two Big Instruments," written for Norm Pearson (tuba player with the Los Angeles Philharmonic), is the perfect intro for an excellent CD! It is a very powerful piece where Alan demontrates a very flowing legato and good phrasing. The next piece is the "Sonata III in F Major" by the German baroque composer Johann Ernst Gallaird. Here, Alan plays all the movements in a very easy manner and with a very light style. Jame Woodward’s "Tuba Concerto" (written for Alan) demonstrates once again Alan’s "Lips of Iron" on this "tour de force" piece! On all the four movements, the composer explores the instrument’s capacities: an athletic 1st movement and the 2nd is a very expressive waltz. In the 3rd, the tuba’s highest tessiatura is explored and the 4th is written in a very dance-like style, proving that the tuba really can dance! This is a great piece! Thanks Woodward!
On the "Nocturno" by Bavarian composer Franz Joseph Strauss, Alan proves that this very lyrical kind of music can sound beautiful on the tuba. The next piece is the well known "Encounters II" by William Kraft. Alan plays this very dramatic and virtuosic piece with a very good feeling and rhythm. He catches the very high Bb’s as if they were "a piece of cake!" How easy he makes it sound!
Michel Blavet’s piece Sonata No. 4 "La Lumagne" is once again a piece were Alan demonstrates his superb control of the style and ornamentations of the early baroque flute playing.
On "La Gitana" by Austrian composer and violin virtuoso, Fritz Kreisler, Alan does an excelent job, playing it very musically and with a very lovely and soft sound. Now comes the time for an hommage to the great french composer, Jean-Michel Defaye on his "Deux Dances" for trombone & piano. Alan plays this piece so well that this reviewer is forced to say that it sounds better on the tuba than on a trombone! (Sorry, fellow trombone players!)
And nothing was more appropriate then to conclude the disc with a Venezuelan Waltz by the Multiple Grammy Award winner composer and Cuban artist, Paquito D’Rivera. Alan plays the "Vals Venezolano" in a very relaxed, rhythmical and humorous manner that will get everybody dancing! A final nod to the amazing pianist Brad Haag, who provided a fabulous accompaniment for this fantastic disc.
This is a great CD that must be in every CD collection. Buy it right now!"
—Sérgio Carolino, Tuba News
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
©2000-2024 by Alex Shapiro. All rights reserved to design and content.