Quincy Porter Complete Viola Works
Celebrated American composer Quincy Porter (1897-1966) produced a distinguishable music style and sound as a result of his studies in France with Andre Caplet and Vincent d’Indy, and in New York with Ernest Bloch. Porter’s music has a singing quality, possessing
genuine rhythmic verve and is always fresh, spontaneous, independent, intellectual, and at the same time in an emotional manner vital. Howard Hanson, stated that ‘Porter’s strings weave golden strands of melody, and his harmonies re-create for the ear of the listener the spirit of beauty.’ As a violist, Porter invented for his instrument an important, enduring, and stimulating body of musical literature. For the very primary time, all of Porter’s works for viola have been recorded and are available on this disc. Performed by Cleveland Orchestra
Violist Eliesha Nelson, in collaboration with Grammy® winner John McLaughlin Williams, and San Francisco Symphony Principal Harpist Douglas Rioth, this recording is a ought to for any individual mesmerized in the repertoire of the viola or American music.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #10833 in Music
- Released on: 2009-09-29
- Number of discs: 1
- Dimensions: .17 pounds
Quincy Porter Complete Viola Works Photo
Quincy Porter Complete Viola Works Picture
Quincy Porter Complete Viola Works Image
Quincy Porter Complete Viola Works Picture
Quincy Porter Complete Viola Works Picture
Quincy Porter Complete Viola Works Picture
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
 Fine music played by an eloquent champion
By Dean Frey
Every once in a while the natural time-span of the CD – three-score minutes and ten – points to a great collection of works by a single composer. For example, Villa-Lobos’s complete works for solo guitar fit nicely on one CD, providing a rare chance to give some focus to a notoriously unfocussed composer. Now violist Eliesha Nelson has put Quincy Porter’s seven works that feature her instrument onto a superb new disc from the Dorian label.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
 Viola Virtuoso
By G. Studdard
Eleisha Nelson establishes her status as a viola virtuoso in her new album, Quincy Porter Complete Viola Works. Her warm tone, unerring pitch and technical brilliance shine in this recording of the Alto member of the string section.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
A Very Special CD
By J Scott Morrison
I defer to the expertise of G. Studdard, a former principal violist in the Fort Worth Symphony, whose review can be seen here. I certainly agree with his assessment of the skills of Eliesha Nelson, a violist in the Cleveland Orchestra, whose recording of the complete viola works of Quincy Porter appear on this disc. And I stand in awe of the contribution of John McLaughlin Williams, who conducts the Northwest Sinfonia in the ‘Viola Concerto’, performs as violinist in Porter’s ‘Duo for Violin and Viola’, as pianist in ‘Poem for Viola and Piano’, ‘Speed Étude’, and ‘Blues Lointain’, and plays harpsichord in ‘Duo for Viola and Harpsichord’. A renaissance man, Mr Williams. And I mustn’t forget that Douglas Rioth is the fine harpist in the ‘Duo for Viola and Harp’.
But the main attraction here is the music of Quincy Porter. Porter (1897-1966) is not as well known as he should be, but there have been three major releases of his music in the past couple of years or so: the present disc, a disc with his first four string quartets played by the Ives Quartet Quincy Porter: String Quartets Nos. 1-4, and his complete quartets by the Potomac String Quartet Complete String Quartets of Quincy Porter — marvelous performances all.
Porter was a New England composer, born and reared in New Haven where his father was a minister and professor at Yale Divinity School. His education was at Yale with Horatio Parker, with time in Paris to study with André Caplet and Vincent D’Indy and back in the U.S. with Ernest Bloch. He taught at the Cleveland Institute and Vassar College, became head of the New England Conservatory in Boston and then spent his last twenty years or so as professor of music back at Yale. He died in 1966 while he was watching a Yale-Princeton football game on TV. He was a violist himself and it is clear in this music that he had intimate knowledge of the instrument. Listen, for instance, to the striking (and fearfully difficult) cadenza toward the end of the Viola Concerto, or the virtuosic figures in the Speed Étude, or the haunting use of the viola’s lower and middle range in the various works’ lyrical passages.
If you are a lover of the sound of the viola (as I am) you owe it to yourself to hear this disc. If you already familiar with Porter’s music, you’ll want this disc. And if you feel a little adventuresome and interested in knowing some beautifully crafted, often lyrical, always compact and feelingful music written in extended classical tonality by a distinguished American composer, you should hear this CD.
Enthusiastically recommended.
Scott Morrison
See all 5 customer reviews…
|