William Bolcom; Stefan Wolpe - 12 New Etudes; Battle Piece (Marc-André Hamelin)

Information

Composer: William Bolcom; Stefan Wolpe

• Bolcom - Twelve New Etudes
• Wolpe - Battle Piece

Marc-André Hamelin, piano

Date: 1988

Label: New World

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Description

The career of William Bolcom (b 1938) has led him from the West Coast (Mills College and Stanford University) to Paris (Milhaud and Messiaen) and New York in the late 1960s, where he contributed to the ragtime revival. He has been teaching at the University of Michigan since 1973. This is the second of two volumes of Twelve Etudes, the first of which was composed between 1959 and 1966 (and recorded by the composer). The Twelve New Etudes were originally written for Paul Jacobs, whose untimely death in 1983 brought the project to a halt. Bolcom has now completed the set and extended the dedication to include the pianists John Musto and Marc-Andre Hamelin.

Battle Piece was to have been the first of a series of works for solo piano entitled Encouragements, a project Stefan Wolpe (1902-1972) began in 1942, during the darkest days of World War II, as his contribution to the struggle against fascism. On the title page of the first version, Wolpe wrote: "Battles, hopes, difficulties/new battles, new hopes, no difficulties." Thus Battle Piece belongs to the genre of Kampfmusik that forms such an important part of his life's work. He began to compose this "music for the struggle" in Berlin in the late 1920s, when he wrote chamber operas, dance scores, theater music, and songs for agitprop troupes engaged in the fight against National Socialism. But Battle Piece is also a struggle on a deeper level, namely, to transmute disparate idioms into a more personal and yet communicative musical tongue.

— Austin Clarkson

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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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Stefan Wolpe (25 August 1902 – 4 April 1972) was a German-born American composer. Born in Berlin, he studied at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory, attended Ferruccio Busoni's master classes, and participated in the Dada movement. Fleeing National Socialism, he lived in Vienna, Palestine, and ultimately New York, where he became an influential teacher and associate of avant-garde figures such as John Cage. Wolpe's music evolved from early neoclassicism toward a distinctive mature style, incorporating Jewish themes in the 1940s and achieving greater stylistic unity in his later American works.

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Marc-André Hamelin (born 5 September 1961 in Montreal) is a distinguished Canadian pianist and composer renowned for his exceptional technique and distinctive interpretations of the classical repertoire. Internationally acclaimed, he has earned 11 Grammy Award nominations and has recorded extensively with the Hyperion label. Hamelin is particularly noted for his commitment to exploring and performing works by lesser-known composers, especially from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as pieces by pianist-composers. He has composed several works himself, including a set of piano études in all the minor keys.

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