Excursions: Piano Music From Barber and Bauer

Album review

While Stephen Beus pursues his career as a virtuoso pianist, performing the most famous works in the repertoire for international competitions and concerts, his first recording is an interesting album of relatively obscure music by two American composers. Compared to the warhorses by Rachmaninov and Chopin that Beus plays for prizes, the keyboard works by Samuel Barber and Marion Bauer are under-performed and under-recorded, though Bauer's are quite unfamiliar and the least represented on disc. Taking the road less traveled and programming these unusual selections shows Beus to be an intelligent artist who recognizes that his audience wants to hear more than the standard fare, and knows that his reputation can only be enhanced with an album as attractive, subtle, and compelling as this one. The Sonata for piano in E flat minor (1949) is the spikiest work here, and reveals Barber's serious experimentation with modernist techniques in a manner fairly reminiscent of Prokofiev. In contrast, Excursions (1942-1944), a set of four studies on American melodies, may be regarded as a populist work, though it was conceived with a sophisticated appreciation for folk tunes and resembles some of Poulenc's pieces in a similarly upbeat vein. With its enigmatic harmonies and dark-hued shifting of keys, Barber's Nocturne in A flat major (1959) provides a smooth transition into Bauer's quasi-Impressionistic music. Her works are not especially adventurous, so Pine-Trees (1921), the Three Impressions (1918), and the Six Preludes (1922) may strike some listeners as too lightweight and fragile to follow Barber's more strongly characterized pieces. Yet Bauer's evanescent colors and lush harmonies are winning, and her part of the program provides a gentle contrast to the muscular beginning. Beus maintains control of all the varied moods of these pieces, never exaggerating or misrepresenting their features; consequently, he produces a program that feels unified in spirit, and does justice to both Barber's genius and Bauer's ingenuity. The recording is clean and sharp, so what is heard accurately reflects Beus' crisp execution and nuanced expression.

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