| Roger Sessions and Ralph Shapey | ||
| Sessions: | Piano Sonata No. 1 |  |
| Piano Sonata No. 3 | ||
| Shapey: | Mutations | |
| Mutations II | ||
| 12 Variations | ||
| Bridge #9243 www.BridgeRecords.com |
||
| "David Holzman surely stands among the greatest living exponents of 20th-century American music. The 58 year old New York pianist's last CD (Music of Wolpe, BRIDGE 9116) was Grammy nominated, won the 2003 Indie Award for 'Best Classical CD of the Year', and won a Deems Taylor award. This new disc continues along that same intensely virtuosic path, with heroic readings of seminal works of Roger Sessions (1896- 1985) and Ralph Shapey (1921-2002). These performances simply must be heard to be believed! What distinguishes Holzman's superb pianism from so many others is his uncommonly deep musical vision which lends poetry and unity to even the most complex and sprawling structures. Here are pianism and musicianship of the very highest order." | ||
| —Bridge Records |
||
| "Let
it be said that Sessions (or Shapey) simply couldn't have a better
advocate and interpreter than David Holzman. This disc is one that
elicits the 'Wow' response. The pianist has unerringly steely
technique, but he has an intellect that allows him to grasp confidently the
conception and structural line of this music. He clarifies everything. There
are passages where the dense contrapuntal textures are so well differentiated,
one might assume this was four-hand music (as an example, the fiery,
overflowing explosion of Mutations II has to be heard to be believed. If there
is any drawback, it is that one will not get the most tender or liquid touch
from Holzman (though this does not mean the man can't produce a pianissimo).
The playing is, as I said, 'steely'. But it's a small price to pay for the
passion, control and rigor that I think admirably matches the spirit of both
composers' music. On top of it, the pianist writes suitably challenging,
intellectually chewy notes. And Bridge's sonics are bracingly big and clear.
While a little out of left field, this could be a Want List item for me come
year's end." |
||
| —
Robert Carl, Fanfare Magazine |
||
|
|
||
| Stefan Wolpe: Compositions for Piano (1920-1952) | ||
| Sonata (1925)* | ||
| Gesang (1920) | ||
| Tango (1927) |
for liner notes, see ESSAYS |
|
| The Good Spirit of a Right Cause (1941)* |  |
|
| Battle Piece (1943-47) | ||
| Waltz for Merle (1952)* | ||
| Zemach Suite (1939) | ||
|
GRAMMY Award
Nominee--Best Classical Solo Performance |
Bridge #9118 |
|
| " For those who dare to venture into the rarefied world of Stefan Wolpe, they could hardly do better than with this exceptional Bridge release. " | ||
| —
(Uncle) Dave Lewis, Allmusic |
||
|
|
||
| Wolpe: | Battle Piece*; Displaced Spaces* | |
| Pleskow: | Epitaph and Caprice* | |
| Greenbaum: | Mischsprache for Piano and Tape* | |
| CRI SD
538 |
||
| "The same intrepid label has just given us another Great Day by issuing David Holzman's searing account of another legend, Wolpe's Battle Piece. Elliott Carter called Battle Piece 'amazing.' It's at least that and so is Holzman's mighty performance. This is an experience you owe yourself. You'll never forget it." | ||
| —Richard Taruskin, Opus
Magazine |
||
| "Mr. Holzman's recital on Composers' Recordings is one of the great piano discs of the decade..." | ||
| —Peter G. Davis, New
York Magazine |
||
|
|
||
| Wolpe: | Music for a Dancer* Lied Anrede Hymnus Strophe* |
 |
| Pleskow: | Sonata #1* | |
| Maxwell Davies: | Farewell to
Stromness; Yesnaby Ground; Sonata (excerpts) |
|
| Centaur
Records CRC 2102 www.centaurrecords.com |
||
| "New York Pianist David Holzman has put together an impressive and coherent program of important modern piano music not available anywhere else. He is an eloquent advocate for these three composers, not only as a pianist but in his literate and helpful liner notes... throughout the disc, Holzman provides vivid characterization and contrapuntal clarity.: | ||
| —Scott
Wheeler, Fanfare |
||
|
|
||
| Martino: | Fantasy*;
Impromptu for Roger*; 12 Preludes* (excerpts); Fantasies and Impromptus |
|
| Albany
Troy 169 |
||
| Martino: | Pianississimo | Albany
Troy 168 |
| "Holzman is an amazing pianist to listen to, engaging a technique of blazing accuracy in the service of beautifully expressive playing. The scores are filled with poetic descriptions of the musical intent behind the exacting notation and Holzman manages to give equal weight to the exactitude and to the poetry ...every detail is employed in the service of communicating meaning on the part of both the composer and the performer. One special joy is the wonderfully expressive variety of uses out to the grace note decorations. Both compact discs include six pages of helpful booklet notes. Holzman's are particularly lucid." | ||
| —Louis
Goldstein, American Music |
||
| ",,,anyone listening to Mr. Holzman's performance of Mr. Martino's compositions on these Albany CDs will surely admire his sterling qualities of touch, timing and tone." | ||
| —Richard
Taruskin, The New York Times |
||
| "The performances are wonderful throughout." | ||
| —Robert
Carl, Fanfare |
||
|
|
||
| Explorations | ||
| Boros: | Mnem* |  |
| Cornicello: | Sonata* | |
| Yttrehus: | Explorations* | |
| Pleskow: | Sonata #2* (excerpts) | |
| Greenbaum: | Amulet* | |
| Centaur
Records, CRC 2291 www.centaurrecords.com |
||
| "[The music] certainly makes punishing demands on the player, and David Holzman acquits himself with brilliance, He simply burns the keyboard up, producing vivid, often thunderous sonorities vividly captured by Centaur's realistic sound. These fierce, demanding works are well worth hearing, especially with such a splendid performance and recording." | ||
| —Daniel Sullivan, American Record Guide | ||
|
|
||
| Visions | ||
| Bloch: | Visions and Prophecies; Ex Voto* |  |
| Ben-Haim: | Five Pieces for Piano | |
| Avni: | Epitaph* | |
| Schoenberg: | Drei Klavierstucke (excerpts) | |
| Wolpe: | from the Palestinian Notebook* (excerpts) | |
| Albany
Troy 283 |
||
| "This fascinating recording presents piano music by Jewish composers of three generations. In his brilliant performances, David Holzman illuminates the many-sidedness and distinctiveness of the styles heard here. The high artistic level of the material reaches from Wolpe's Jewish folk miniatures which, in their aphoristic brevity serve a much higher purpose than that of mere encores, to the epochal abstraction of Schoenberg's op.11. I have rarely heard these works so clearly illuminated and differentiated as here." | ||
| —Knute Franke, Fonoforum, Germany | ||
| *premiere
recording |
||
|
|
||
| Wolpe: | Dance in Form of a Chaconne (from Zemach Suite - 1939) (excerpts) | |
| Wolpe: | Stehendemusik (from Sonata - 1925) (excerpts) | |
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