Labor Records' Release Pays Tribute to ALBAN BERG AT 125

By: Oct. 26, 2010
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Labor Records today released Music of Tribute: Berg, an hom age to Viennese composer Alban Berg. 2010 marks both the 125th anniversary of the birth, and 75th anniversary of the death, of this towering figure of early 20th-century mod­ernism. Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute makes her recording debut with scintillating performances of Berg's first two published works, as well as previously unknown or unrecorded music writ ten in tribute to his genius. This exploration of the wide-ranging connections between Berg's body of work and subsequent music that it has influenced presents the very first recordings of works by Franghiz Ali-Zadeh, Ross Lee Finney and Jacob Gilboa.

All of the works presented on the recording are tributes of sorts: Berg's Piano Sonata Opus 1-written in honor of his teacher Arnold Schoenberg-is considered among the most for midable initial works of any composer in history, and his Four Songs, Opus 2-recorded here with mezzo-soprano Marjorie Dix-was both dedicated to Berg's future wife, and modeled on Schoenberg's second string quartet.

This seminal composer's in novations inspired tributes written by an internationally diverse group of composers. The eccentric Giacinto Scelsi's à la memoire d'Alban Berg "Passage du poète" explores the atmosphere of Berg's music and is suggestive of the opus 1 piano sonata. With striking parallels to Berg's first published composition, Ali-Zadeh's Piano Sonata in Memoriam Alban Berg launched the international career of Central Asia's most cosmopolitan composer. In Variations on a Theme by Alban Berg, Finney pays specific tribute to Berg's Violin Concerto. Gilboa reflects on three chords and their colors from Berg's celebrated opera Wozzeck with his Reflections on Three Chords of Alban Berg. Apostel commemorated Berg the year of his death with his Variations from ‘Lulu', an arrangement for piano four-hands of the fourth movement in Berg's Lulu Suite.

This recording is the sixth volume of Labor Records' Music of Tribute series - a project that links works by historic composers with unknown, rediscovered or previously unrecorded music that pays tribute to them through dedication or thematic reference. Labor Records are distributed by Naxos of America, Inc.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano
Lithuanian pianist Ieva Jokubaviciute, known for her deep musical and emotional commitment to a wide range of repertoire, has been described as an "elegant and engaging" (The Wall Street Journal) artist possessing "razor-sharp intelligence and wit" (The Washington Post). In 2006, she was honored as a recipient of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.

Ieva performs regularly for audiences in the US, Europe, and South America. She made her Chicago Symphony debut at the Ravinia Festival under the baton of James Conlon in June 2005, and that same season appeared as a guest artist on National Public Radio's Performance Today, at Carnegie's Weill Hall, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Following her solo recital at the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery in Washington DC, The Washington Post described her performance as "magical tone-painting" by a "splendid colorist". Over the last several seasons, Ieva's performances have included national tours with Musicians from Marlboro; recitals in Chicago (Dame Myra Hess Concert Series), New York City (Caspary Hall) and Vilnius, Lithuania; as well as her orchestral debut in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil performing Mozart's K. 488 under the baton of Ligia Amadio. In June 2009, Ieva's piano trio-Trio Cavatina-won the 2009 Naumburg Chamber Music Competition and made its Carnegie Hall debut in May of 2010. This fall, Ieva toured England with musicians from Prussia Cove, which culminated with a concert at Wigmore Hall in London.

A much sought after chamber musician and collaborator, Ieva's international music festival appearances include: Marlboro; Ravinia; Bard; Chesapeake Chamber Music; Taos Chamber Music Festival; Prussia Cove in England; La Lointaine in France; Conservatoire Américaine de Fontainebleau; and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany. Ieva is a Collaborative Pianist at the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival, and is on the piano faculty of the Bard College Conservatory of Music Preparatory Division. Earning degrees from the Curtis Institute of Music and from Mannes College of Music, her principal teachers have been Seymour Lipkin and Richard Goode.

Marjorie Elinor Dix, mezzo-soprano
Marjorie Elinor Dix is a graduate of Duquesne University and the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artists Development Program. She has performed at the Metropolitan Opera and in opera houses throughout the United States and abroad. Some of her accomplishments include Marie in Wozzeck at Opéra National de Lorraine and Isolde in Tristan und Isolde with Virginia Opera. Ms Dix has performed works ranging from Bach to Harbison. Marjorie has appeared with major orchestras and chamber ensembles such as the Houston Symphony, the American Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Metropolitan Opera Chamber Ensemble with James Levine.



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