Before the premiere of his legendary political musical The Cradle Will Rock, and his famous opera Regina, Marc Blitzstein (1905-1964) produced striking chamber music that deserves a wider audience. Yet these scores, by the only American to study composition both with Arnold Schoenberg and Nadia Boulanger, remain unpublished and rarely played over the past 80 years. Other Minds is pleased to introduce these forgotten treasures, an unknown aspect of Blitzstein's genius.
THE RARE EARLY WORKS
SOLO PIANO WORKS Sarah Cahill, piano
1. Piano Sonata (1927) 6:59
Piano Percussion Music (1929) 11:55
2. Toccata 2:30
3. Air 4:49
4. Rondino 4:31
Scherzo (1930) 3:08
5. “Bourgeois at Play”
COMPLETE STRING QUARTETS Del Sol String Quartet
Quartet for Strings, “Italian” (1930) 20:29
6. Allegro 4:13
7. Allegretto 5:12
8. Presto possibile 1:47
9. Lento 9:04
Serenade for String Quartet (1932) 16:36
10. Largo 5:32
11. Largo 5:16
12. Largo 5:43
Total Time: 59:28