Victor Herbert: Works for Cello and Piano/Solo Piano Works
Liner Notes   Cat. No. 80721     Release Date: 2011-12-01

Jerry Grossman, cello William Hicks, piano

Specially priced (2 CDs for the price of 1!)

In an attempt to understand the foundations of the modern American musical theater, we believe that it is best to start with an understanding of the man who has often been called the Father of the American Musical Theater. His name was Victor Herbert (1859–1924). Although he wrote two operas, forty-six works for the commercial theater, two cello concerti, one tone poem and many other serious works, he is little known to today’s artists, composers, and the public in general. We hope to change that.

We have no intention of recording everything he wrote, but we would like to provide major examples of the breadth of his work and its beauty. We would like to demonstrate how the next generation of composers built on Herbert’s theatrical groundwork. For this reason, we are beginning a new series of recordings highlighting American musical theater composers whose work pre-dates the 1943 production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! We call this series of releases “The Foundations of the American Musical Theater.”

For our first release in this new series, we have chosen a selection of Herbert’s compositions for the piano and cello, most of which is recorded here for the first time. In the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century, Herbert was one of several American composers who achieved success not only in larger symphonic forms, but also in shorter pieces for amateur music-making at home.

These so-called “parlor” genres are the focus of this set, and are works which reflect the genteel sensibilities of those who purchased this music and performed it with their family and friends. These pieces represent popular genres of the time: waltzes, ragtime, and shorter “character pieces” which are brief evocations of a particular scene or sentiment. Many earlier European composers had cultivated works in the forms Herbert used yet his overall style—its earnestness, its directness of approach, its preference for lyricism over pathos—marks it as reflective of an aesthetic common in American parlor music of the time.

Jerry Grossman

Victor Herbert: Works for Cello and Piano/Solo Piano Works

MP3/320 $9.99
WAV $9.99
2xCD $15.99
Légende
Victor Herbert
Buy
Pensée Amoureuse
Victor Herbert
Buy
Berceuse
Victor Herbert
Buy
Petite Valse
Victor Herbert
Buy
Liebes-Scene
Victor Herbert
Buy
Canzonetta
Victor Herbert
Buy
Unpublished #2
Victor Herbert
Buy
The Little Red Lark
Victor Herbert
Buy
Romance
Victor Herbert
Buy
Unpublished #1
Victor Herbert
Buy
Under the Elms
Victor Herbert
Buy
Indian Summer
Victor Herbert
Buy
Scherzo
Victor Herbert
Buy
Estellita (Valse Pathetique)
Victor Herbert
Buy
Devotion (a Love Sonnet)
Victor Herbert
Buy
Six Piano Pieces: I. Yesterthoughts
Victor Herbert
Buy
Six Piano Pieces: II. Punchinello
Victor Herbert
Buy
Six Piano Pieces: III. Ghazel
Victor Herbert
Buy
Six Piano Pieces: IV. La Coquette
Victor Herbert
Buy
Six Piano Pieces: V. On the Promenade
Victor Herbert
Buy
Six Piano Pieces: VI. The Mountain Brook
Victor Herbert
Buy
The American Rose
Victor Herbert
Buy
Fleurette
Victor Herbert
Buy
Al Fresco (Intermezzo)
Victor Herbert
Buy
Ocean Breezes
Victor Herbert
Buy
Pan-Amercan (Morceau Characteristique)
Victor Herbert
Buy