William Bolcom - Complete Gospel Preludes (Gregory Hand)

Information

Composer: William Bolcom

1. Gospel Preludes, Book 1, No. 1. What a Friend We Have In Jesus!
2. Gospel Preludes, Book 1, No. 2. La Cathedrale engloutie (Rock of Ages)
3. Gospel Preludes, Book 1, No. 3. Just as I Am
4. Gospel Preludes, Book 2, No. 4. Jesus Loves Me
5. Gospel Preludes, Book 2, No. 5. Shall We Gather at the River (Fantasia)
6. Gospel Preludes, Book 2, No. 6. Amazing Grace
7. Gospel Preludes, Book 3, No. 7. Jesus Calls Us; O'er the Tumult
8. Gospel Preludes, Book 3, No. 8. Blessed Assurance
9. Gospel Preludes, Book 3, No. 9. Nearer, My God, to Thee
10. Gospel Preludes, Book 4, No. 10. Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child
11. Gospel Preludes, Book 4, No. 11. Sweet Hour of Prayer
12. Gospel Preludes, Book 4, No. 12. Free Fantasia on O Zion, Haste and How Firm a Foundation

Gregory Hand, organ

Date: 2012

Label: Naxos

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Review

William Bolcom can be counted upon to compose music that brings a certain personal approach to the table. In the lineage of Charles Ives and those that came after, Bolcom often utilizes the music around him or a part of his heritage and transforms it to make a personal compositional statement that is American in a stubborn sort of rugged individualistic way.

And so on his Complete Gospel Preludes for organ (Naxos 8.559695), in a nicely done new recording by Gregory Hand, he calls on the blues, gospel, hymn tunes and other things besides to create a series of preludes that bear his personal stamp.

It's cathedral organ music in the grand tradition, dynamic, big, vibrant, and yet it is also a somewhat eccentric take on both the hymns and the prelude form. He interjects dissonances, alters the songs to suit his particular inventive fancy, reharmonizes, stretches, rethinks, juxtiposes alongside avant elements and generally remakes in his own compositional image.

If in the course of all this the music is lively, fun, and a bit irreverent in ways uniquely Bolcomian. You would never expect anything less of the man.

These are not quite like anything else and yet the spirit of Charles Ives, himself for a time the organist of a church in Manhattan years ago, is honored while forwarding the very singular post-modernism of Bolcom himself.

Recommended.

— Grego Applegate Edwards

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William Bolcom (born 26 May 1938) is an American composer and pianist known for bridging popular and classical music traditions. Educated at the University of Washington, Mills College, the Paris Conservatory and Stanford University, he later served as professor of composition at the University of Michigan. A prolific composer, Bolcom wrote works across genres, including piano études, operas, orchestral music and song cycles, and showed a particular affinity for ragtime. He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1988 and multiple Grammy Awards in 2006. Bolcom has also been active as a performer, writer, editor and educator.

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Gregory Hand is Professor of Organ at the University of Iowa and a distinguished performer. Previously, he served as university chapel organist at Northwestern University and taught music theory. He holds a DMA degree from the University of Michigan, where he studied organ and harpsichord. Hand maintains an active international career, presenting recitals and masterclasses worldwide and serving on juries for major organ competitions. His acclaimed Naxos recording of William Bolcom's Complete Gospel Preludes marked a world premiere. He is also an accomplished harpsichordist and is an advocate for new music.

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