FOUR SKETCHES Op.19 by Horatio Parker, Peter Kairoff piano

Horatio Parker's The Four Sketches, Opus 19, are decidedly more challenging pianistically and adventurous harmonically than his Six Lyrics, Opus 25, although they date from a year earlier. In them we find a more distinctive musical voice--music more for the concert platform than for the intimacy of the salon. The pentatonic scale implied by the opening melody of the memorable Nocturne has an "American? feel to it--something which is never evident in the Opus 25. The clever use of the keyboard in the Etude Melodieuse, as the harp-like accompaniment passes from hand to hand, and the sharply drawn character and laconic form of the Scherzino show a composer already at ease with his craft.

After decades of relative obscurity, a number of gifted American composers who flourished around the turn of the Twentieth Century are being rediscovered by classical music lovers. After their deaths, composers such as Arthur Foote (1853-1937), Amy Beach (1867-1944), Horatio Parker (1863-1919) and a number of others were dismissed as derivative and minor figures, writers of pale imitations of European art music. But as their works begin to reenter the repertoire with greater frequency, listeners at the turn of the Twenty-first Century are discovering music of great charm, impeccable craftsmanship, and sincere expression.

In fact, these composers of the "New England School" were admired and respected in their day. Parker, for example, as professor of composition and Dean of the School of Music at Yale, enjoyed a reputation as a master of compositional craft, and taught a number of important younger composers, among them Charles Ives. His extensive output includes many large-scale serious works for orchestra, choral anthems, operas, and the oratorio Hora Novissima (1893), which helped establish his reputation internationally. The music on this disc, much of it recorded here for the first time, reveals a different side of Parker, however. These are all "character pieces": brief, direct sketches in the spirit of Mendelssohn's Songs Without Words or Schumann's Fantasy Pieces. They reveal a more intimate Parker, free from academic pretense. This is music for the salon, rather than the university or concert hall.



Peter Kairoff was born in Los Angeles, and studied at the University of Southern California, where he received Master's and Doctoral degrees with highest honors. He also studied in Italy for two years as a Fulbright Scholar and Rotary International Fellow. He has taught at the University of Texas at Austin and the State University of New York, and is currently Professor of Music at Wake Forest University, where he has taught since 1988.

He has performed throughout the United States and Europe and South America to great critical acclaim. His recordings of American 19th Century composers have received enthusiastic reviews from the Washington Post, Fanfare, ClassicsToday.com, and many others.

This music is from the CD "American Reverie, Piano Music of Horatio Parker" published by Albany Records.