Waltzes of the Americas
Polly Ferman, Piano
Ernesto Nazareth, Brazil (1863-1934)
[1] Confidencias-1913
[2] Celestial
[3] Cre e Espera (Believe and Expect)-1913
[4] Turbilhao de Beijos (Whirlwind of Kisses)
Luis Cluzeau-Mortet, Uruguay (1889-1957)
[5] Primera Suite de Valses-1929
[6] Segunda Suite de Valses-1933
Alberto Williams, Argentina (1862-1952)
[7] Decimotercero Aire de Vals-1939
Scott Joplin, U.S. (1868-1917)
[8] Bink's Waltz-1905
[9] Bethena-1905
Francisco Mignone, Brazil (1897 -1986)
[10] Valsa de Esquina #5-1938
[11] Valsa de Esquina #6-1940
[12] Valsa de Esquina #2-1938
George Gershwin, U.S. (1898-1937)
[13] Two Waltzes in C-1933 (Adapted by Saul Chapin)
Emerging as a sensation during the Napoleonic era, the waltz spread from its native Austria to all parts of the world, crystalizing for generations a new image of elegance, more dashing and suggestive of intimacy and gaiety than anything previously permissible on the dance floor. Starting as a genteel folk dance akin to the Landler, the romantic imagination quickly found that the waltz lent itself to especially tender musical sentiments.
In the Americas as well as Europe, the popularity of waltzes motivated composers and publishers to turn them out in great numbers, most of this in sheet music destined for the parlor piano. Toward the end of the 19th century, when native American composers began to find their distinct voices, there emerged a varied literature of native instrumental waltzes.
Ernesto Nazareth was born in Rio in 1863. His musical training was limited to piano lessons in his youth. Nazareth was always to be appreciated for his original performance style, though his greatness showed in his self-taught gift for composition. He transformed Brazilian music by integrating his graceful romantic pianism with various native influences.
Nazareth wrote mainly dance music, and he is famous for his Tangos. His waltzes also brim with fresh invention and the feel of the Brazilian scene.
Scott Joplin is, of course, associated with the emergence of piano ragtime. A contemporary of Nazareth, writing in the era of the waltz, he possessed an authentic waltz spirit.
Early in his career, Joplin composed "The Harmony Club Waltz" which showed what could be done along the raggedy-waltz line.
In 1905 he composed two more waltzes, both recorded here, with a very different outlook.
With our selections by Luis Cluzeau-Mortet, we come to the Waltz a quarter century later. Cluzeau-Mortet was an Uruguayan composer, also largely self-taught, but drawn to more ambitious forms than Nazareth or Joplin. He left his mark with several effective orchestral pieces. Mortet returns to the suite form of the earliest waltzes.
The 16 published waltzes of Albert Williams are abstract compositions, like those of Chopin. An Argentinian, Williams studied in
France with Cesar Franck. An accomplished and prolific composer of symphonies, concerti, chamber and solo pieces, Williams also wrote concert works in the forms of popular dances, drawing on native folk themes.
Francisco Mignone, trained in Sao Paulo and Milan, was one of the Americas' most fluidly expressive musical artists. Though he was noted, as his style matured, to include in his operas and other compositions elements of Brazilian popular music, he had in fact been successfully writing popular music all along under the pen name of Chico Bororo. The three waltzes recorded here are pure instrumental music and they show all the combined facets of Mignone's talent.
George Gershwin also combined the roles of popular and serious composer, but in reverse order from Mortet. Like Joplin, our other North American, Gershwin, composed virtually no music in three-four time. By Gershwin's day the syncopated two-four
had become the norm. The waltz, despite its enchanted history, had degenerated on the dance floor into a sort of fox-trot in triple time. By this time, in the U.S. at any rate, people danced almost entirely to popular songs.
"Two Waltzes in C" adapted by Saul Chapin, is an instrumental sequence from the musical Pardon My English, bringing together a tune from the show Tonight, with a very independent counter melody, making the piece a double-song, like Berlin's "Play a Simple Melody" or Gershwin's own "Soon." Chapin's arrangement restores the original Interlude's introductory section.
From notes © 1991 Alexander Tooker
Recorded at JVC, Victor Studios, Tokyo, Japan, November 1990
Produced by William Daghlian
Engineering: Fumio Hatori
Piano: Steinway
Cover Photo by" Tetsuya Fukui
