Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia-Roma, Alfredo Antonini, conductor; New Art Wind Quintet, Harriet Wingreen, piano; Members of the Alumni of the National Orchestra Association and The American Brass Quintet; John Barnett, conductor; Eastman-Rochester Symphony Orchestra, Howard Hanson, conductor
Wallingford Constantin Riegger was born in Albany, Georgia, on April 29, 1885. Like most composers, he showed musical talent at an early age, and was proficient on both the violin and piano by the time he was in his teens. Later on, at the urging of his parents, he took up the cello, so that the family could have its own string quartet. It was as a cello student that young Riegger entered the Institute of Musical Art (later The Juilliard School); he was a member of its first graduating class in 1907.
Riegger then spent several years in Europe, where he studied composition with Max Bruch and Edgar Stillman-Kelly and made his debut as a conductor in Berlin. In 1917, three days before the United States entered World War I, he returned to America, where he accepted a post as cello teacher at Drake University in Iowa.
In 1922, Riegger moved to New York where he quickly established ties with several prominent people in American music, among them Charles Ives, Edgard Varèse, Henry Cowell and Carl Ruggles. He became known as an "ultra- modernist" composer. "I felt the need to express musical ideas for which the older techniques were inadequate," he later said. "I found the new atonal idiom, with its fresh possibilities in sonority and rhythm, creatively stimulating and more expressive of the feelings I wished to convey in music."
Elliott Carter, whose music resembles Riegger's in its uncompromising intensity, paid tribute to the older man in an article for the 1952 Bulletin of the American Composers Alliance. "Riegger has followed the dictates of his own personality and musical instinct unobtrusively for years," he wrote, without caring whether he was or was not in step with the fashions of the time, or, apparently, whether he would become known or his music performed."
"While Riegger has been quietly writing music, a host of aggressive younger composers has appeared, most of them more impatient than he to gain acclaim," Carter continued. "So he was generally overlooked in favor of composers more determined and skillful about personal promotion. However, a number of still younger musicians, feeling the need for a change from points of view prevalent in the 1930s have recently found him out and begun to take his music with the seriousness it deserves."
This title, originally issued on the CRI label, is now available as a burn-on-demand CD (CD-R) or download in MP3/320, FLAC or WAV formats. CD-Rs come in a protective sleeve; no print booklet or jewel case included. Liner notes are accessible via the link above.
Wallingford Riegger
| MP3/320 | $9.99 | |
| FLAC | $9.99 | |
| WAV | $9.99 | |
| CD-R | $9.99 |
A *.pdf of the notes may be accessed here free of charge.
Track Listing
|
Romanza, Op.56a
Wallingford Riegger
|
Buy
|
|
|
Dance Rhythms, Op. 58a
Wallingford Riegger
|
Buy
|
|
|
Music for Orchestra, Op. 50
Wallingford Riegger
|
Buy
|
|
|
Concerto for Piano and Woodwind Quintet: I - Allegro
Wallingford Riegger
|
Buy
|
|
|
Concerto for Piano and Woodwind Quintet: II - Andante
Wallingford Riegger
|
Buy
|
|
|
Concerto for Piano and Woodwind Quintet: III - Allegro Molto
Wallingford Riegger
|
Buy
|
|
|
Music for Brass Choir
Wallingford Riegger
|
Buy
|
|
|
Movement for Two Trumpets, Trombone, and Piano, Op. 66
Wallingford Riegger
|
Buy
|
|
|
Nonet for Brass
Wallingford Riegger
|
Buy
|
|
|
Symphony No. 3: I - Moderato; Allegro
Wallingford Riegger
|
Buy
|
|
|
Symphony No. 3: II - Andante affetuoso
Wallingford Riegger
|
Buy
|
|
|
Symphony No. 3: III - Moderato; Allegro
Wallingford Riegger
|
Buy
|
|
|
Symphony No. 3: IV - Beginning rather slowly; Allegro; Allegro Feroce; Moderato
Wallingford Riegger
|
Buy
|
