Julian Schwarz, Gerard Schwarz Release Foote's Cello Concerto With Buffalo Philharmonic
Pianist Marika Bournaki joins the album, which also restores Foote's chamber works for cello and piano.
GRAMMY-nominated cellist Julian Schwarz releases the world premiere commercial recording of Arthur Foote's Cello Concerto in G Minor, Op. 33 (first performed in 1894) on August 28 on Delos Records as part of The Complete Cello Works of Arthur Foote. The album marks Schwarz's Delos debut and features the cellist with his father, conductor Gerard Schwarz, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as pianist Marika Bournaki.
Arthur Foote, the only composer of the "Boston Six" of the Second New England School to receive his entire musical education in the United States, is widely regarded as America's first homegrown classical composer. Foote's music is distinguished by its refined melodic writing and lush harmonic language.
The recording represents the culmination of a remarkable father-and-son effort to bring Foote's concerto back to life. Julian Schwarz first discovered a listing for the work in an encyclopedia of American music but was unable to locate either a score or recording. With the help of librarians at the Seattle Symphony, Julian and Gerard Schwarz eventually located one set of 19th-century handwritten orchestral parts-including the orchestral score and solo part-in the Free Library of Philadelphia's Edwin A. Fleisher Music Collection. Working from these materials, they reconstructed the score from scratch.
JoAnn Falletta, a champion of the project, subsequently arranged for the father and son to perform and record the work with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. The Schwarzes have since created a new published edition of the solo and orchestral parts through JSGS Publishing (ed. Julian Schwarz), making the concerto available to future generations of cellists and orchestras. Julian and the Boston Chamber Symphony gave the Boston premiere of the work earlier this year.
Foote was a celebrated keyboardist and organist in Boston, one of the founders of the American Guild of Organists, and worked as organist and music director at the First Unitarian Church in Boston for 32 years. As Julian Schwarz explains in his album note, 1894 was a pivotal year for the American cello concerto: Antonín Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B Minor, Victor Herbert's Cello Concerto No. 2 in E Minor, and Foote's Cello Concerto in G Minor were all written or premiered that year. Foote's Cello Concerto was dedicated to Bruno Steindel (1866-1949), the prominent cellist of the Theodore Thomas Orchestra (now the Chicago Symphony Orchestra). The recording also features Foote's 3 Pieces for Cello and Piano, Op. 1; Aubade, Op. 77; Scherzo, Op. 22, and Cello Sonata in E Minor, Op. 78, recorded with pianist Marika Bournaki.
Cellist Julian Schwarz was awarded first prize at the inaugural Schoenfeld International Competition in 2013 and has since made over 250 concerto appearances in the US and abroad. Julian performs in a duo with Marika Bournaki as winners of the 2016 Boulder International Competition's 'The Art of Duo.' He is a founding member of the Frisson Ensemble and the newest core member of San Antonio's Olmos Ensemble.
A devoted teacher, Schwarz serves as Associate Professor of Cello at Shenandoah Conservatory, Distinguished Artist In Residence at Lynn Conservatory, and on the artist faculty of New York University. He received BM and MM degrees from The Juilliard School under Joel Krosnick. A Pirastro artist, he endorses Pirastro Perpetual cello strings. julianschwarz.com
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