Abram Chasins: Complete Music for Piano Solo

Catalogue No: TOCC0678
EAN/UPC: 5060113446787
Release Date: 2023-02-03
Composer: Abram Chasins
Artists: Margarita Glebov

Abram Chasins (1903–87) began his career as a pianist and composer but as broadcaster and writer soon became one of the best-known cultural commentators in the USA. His output of music for solo piano – recorded here complete for the first time – dates from his first years in the public eye, and although he made little attempt to promote it himself, one sees instantly why it was so well received at the time: sweeping keyboard textures and grand Romantic gestures expressed in a style somewhere between Rachmaninov and Prokofiev, sometimes with echoes of Chopin and Gershwin. The works here range from witty character pieces, some intended for children, and affectionate tributes to other pianists to more serious abstract essays – and Chasins, too, was a member of the club of composers who wrote 24 preludes in all the major and minor keys.

Margarita Glebov, piano

Listen To This Recording:

    CD1: Complete Preludes*

    Six Preludes, Op. 10 (1928)

  1. No. 1 in C major
  2. No. 2 in A minor
  3. No. 3 in E minor
  4. No. 4 in G major, ‘Lullaby’
  5. No. 5 in D major
  6. No. 6 in B minor
  7. Six Preludes, Op. 11 (1928)

  8. No. 7 in F sharp minor
  9. No. 8 in A major
  10. No. 9 in E major
  11. No. 10 in C sharp minor
  12. No. 11 in G sharp minor
  13. No. 12 in B major
  14. Six Preludes, Op. 12 (1928)

  15. No. 13 in G flat major
  16. No. 14 in E flat minor
  17. No. 15 in B flat minor
  18. No. 16 in D flat major, ’Pastorale’
  19. No. 17 in A flat major
  20. No. 18 in F minor
  21. Six Preludes, Op. 13 (1928)

  22. No. 19 in C minor
  23. No. 20 in E flat major
  24. No. 21 in B flat major, ‘Chorale’
  25. No. 22 in G minor
  26. No. 23 in D minor
  27. No. 24 in F major
  28. CD2: Other Works

    Piano Playtime (1951)

  29. I Waltz of the Rainbow
  30. II Banjo Boy
  31. III Holiday Bells
  32. IV By the Brook
  33. V Dancing Bagpipes
  34. VI Tricky Trumpet
  35. VII The Airplane
  36. The Master Class, Op. 4 (1925)*

  37. I Precocity
  38. II Dualism
  39. III Passionate Austerity (Procession)
  40. IV Gradus ad Palais Royale
  41. Three Chinese Pieces (publ. 1925)

  42. No. 1 A Shanghai Tragedy
  43. No. 2 Flirtation in a Chinese Garden
  44. No. 3 Rush Hour in Hong Kong
  45. Keyboard Karikatures, Op. 6 (1925)*

  46. I Rachmaninoff
  47. II Godowsky
  48. III Bachaus
  49. Fairy Tale, Op. 16 No. 1 (1931)
  50. Narrative: Remembrance of Things Past, Op. 36 (1942)
  51. Etude Appassionato (1925)*
  52. Gluck-Chasins Melody (1938)
  53. Schwanda Fantasy (publ. 1940)
 

*FIRST RECORDINGS

1 review for Abram Chasins: Complete Music for Piano Solo

  1. :

    ‘ […]Technical flair, refinement, expressive projection, and romanticism inform most of the Preludes. […]

    There are excellent notes from Donald Manildi, the recording quality is similarly top-notch and Glebov is full of technical fitness and subtle expressive ardour.’

    —Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International

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