Charles Tomlinson Griffes (1884-1920): The White Peacock, from Roman Sketches, Op. 7 (1915-16)
The complete set: • Charles Griffes: Roman...
Solungga Liu, piano
Perhaps the most fully realized of his character pieces, the Roman Sketches, Opus 7 (1915-1916), display a widely imaginative musical palette, inventive juxtapositions of themes into highly personal forms and a sublime sense of pacing and expression. Contrary to the other sets, these works were linked to their texts from the outset, yielding even greater programmatic associations than in pieces written earlier. The music itself speaks with such clarity and conviction, however, that the program never becomes a scaffold on which to affix musical ideas.
The White Peacock is composed of four central ideas: a haunting opening figure reheard only in the closing bars, a playful descending line, the strutting dotted figure that is perhaps the most purely ‘thematic’ and a lyrical, “languid” theme accompanied by rolling arpeggios. The way Griffes combines these ideas and plays them off one another is enchanting.
~ Gregory Mertl~
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℗ 2010 Centaur Records
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