Basically Bull - Works by Blitheman / Bull / Byrd / Gibbons / Redford / Tomkins Alan Feinberg

• Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656):
• 1 A Sad Pavan for these distracted times 03:49
• John Bull (1562-1628):
• 2 Pavan and Galliard 'St. Thomas Wake': Galliard 02:32
• William Byrd (1543-1623):
• 3 Qui passe for my Lady Nevell, P. 19 03:56
• John Bull:
• 4 Pavan in the Second Tone 06:15
• 5 Galliard (Musica Britannica, Vol. 19, No. 78) 02:07
• John Blitheman (1525-1591):
• 6 Gloria tibi Trinitas No. 1 02:14
• John Bull:
• 7 Fantasia (Musica Britannica, Vol. 14, No. 5) 03:56
• 8 In nomine IX (Musica Britannica, Vol. 14, No. 28) 06:24
• 9 Canon, 4 in 2 (Musica Britannica, Vol. 14, No. 50) 02:11
• William Byrd:
• 10 Pavan and Galliard No. 3 in A Minor: Galliard 01:28
• John Bull:
• 11 In nomine V (Musica Britannica, Vol. 14, No. 24) 03:21
• 12 Dutch Dance (Musica Britannica, Vol. 19, No. 99) 01:49
• Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625):
• 13 Fantasia No. 4 in D Minor 04:54
• 14 Pavan No. 16 in G Minor 06:05
• John Redford (1547 -):
• 15 Aeterne rex altissime 02:18
• John Bull:
• 16 Lord Lumley's Pavan and Galliard (Musica Britannica, Vol. 19, No. 129): Lord Lumley's Galliard 01:53
• 17 Ut re mi fa so la (Musica Britannica, Vol. 14, No. 17) 05:47
• 18 Christe redemptor omnium (Musica Britannica, Vol. 14, No. 33) 02:14
• 19 Fantasia (Musica Britannica, Vol. 14, No. 12) 06:17
• 20 Bull's Goodnight (Musica Britannica, Vol. 19, No. 143) 04:04
• Total Runtime 01:13:34

Info for Basically Bull - Works by Blitheman / Bull / Byrd / Gibbons / Redford / Tomkins

Alan Feinberg performs some of the most avant-garde works for the “virginal” – a prototype of sorts of the piano—from John Bull, William Byrd, and Orlando Gibbons, among others. These works are recorded for the first time on a modern piano.

Full of complex contrapuntal lines that tie fingers in knots, this experimental and dynamic pianism of early England balked in the face of conventional music at the time. Bull’s works were not born of genteel or pithy dance tunes, nor were they meant to express the flowering charms of the gentlewoman of society. Described as a “vexatious” human being, Bull fled England in 1613 in fear of being persecuted for “his incontinence, fornication, adultery and other grievous crimes” (according to Bull himself.)

He was a compositional renegade who pushed the boundaries in every sense of the word. With a penchant for writing near-impossible melodic spiraling lines that demanded dexterity and diligence, Bull provided, with a cohort of compelling keyboard composers, a folio of incredible and unearthed works.

The works included on Feinberg’s disc feature music from Orlando Gibbons, John Bull, Thomas Tomkins, John Redford, William Byrd and John Blitheman. These short pieces all embody the bold counterpoint, odd harmonies and embellished melodies that cast them aside from traditional repertoire. Bull’s Pavan in the Second Tone embodies the strange harmonic progression Bull was known for and his tune Galliard defies the average speed of fingers. Gibbons’ Fantasia is a lovely, tune that builds in a slow, meandering fugue-like way. Feinberg understands these works and their inherent irreverence.

He has blown the dust off of the manuscripts and unearthed them to breathe new life into these works, originally composed for the virginal. According to Feinberg, “Fashioning a group of these works to function in concert and translating them to the different timbre of the modern piano has been an exciting venture into the 16th/17th century avant-garde.” None of these works have ever been recorded on a modern piano.

„Sonically the recording sounds beautiful, richly capturing the timbre of the piano without any blurring of the musical lines. After listening, you will certainly be left wondering why this music has remained the province of early music specialists. It would grace any modern recital program. Glenn Gould’s disc of music by Gibbons and Byrd gave piano mavens a first inkling of the riches contained in this repertoire, and it’s surprising that so few major pianists have taken up the challenge. We’re lucky that Alan Feinberg has done it so superbly. A revelation.“ (David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com)

Alan Feinberg, piano

Alan Feinberg
has achieved a remarkable reputation as a vanguard pianist and musician who has charted his own unique path in music. His intelligence, integrity and affinity for an unusually wide range of repertoire place him among those few artists who are able to build a bridge between music of the past and present. With repertoire that ranges from Bach to Babbitt, Mr. Feinberg's creative approach to programming places contemporary music within a broad framework as part of an ongoing, living tradition.

In October 1998, Mr. Feinberg performed the world premiere of the recently-discovered "Emerson" Piano Concerto by Charles Ives, with Christoph von Dohnanyi and the Cleveland Orchestra. He performed it again with them on tour in Paris. Recent concerts also included the Amy Beach Concerto at the Chautauqua Festival, the Gershwin Second Rhapsody with the American Symphony in Avery Fisher Hall in New York, the Oscar Levant Concerto with the American Composers Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, Messiaen's "Oiseaux exotiques" with the New World Symphony, and the Ravel G Major Concerto with the Syracuse Symphony. His 99-2000 season included the Ives "Emerson" Concerto with Christoph von Dohnanyi at the London Proms, the Beach Concerto with the Saint Louis Symphony, and a return to the Chautauqua Festival. Upcoming recitals include Princeton; University of Wisconsin, Madison; and Cooper Union in New York. Last summer, he opened the San Francisco Symphony's "Mavericks Festival" with Michael Tilson Thomas.

Other major collaborations include a tour with the Cleveland Orchestra and Christoph von Dohnanyi, performing Shulamit Ran's "Concert Piece for Piano and Orchestra" and Brahms' Concerto No. 2 in New York, Boston, Cleveland, San Francisco and other cities. At Lincoln Center, with the American Symphony Orchestra, he performed the Leo Ornstein Piano Concerto, and has also performed the world premiere of Andrew Imbrie's Fourth Piano Concerto, and John Cage's Piano Concerto. He appeared with the New York Philharmonic performing Poulenc's Concerto for Two Pianos with Ursula Oppens; with the Los Angeles Philharmonic playing Gershwin's Concerto in F, and with Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony performing Berg's Chamber Concerto. He was chosen by John Adams to perform the piano score of "Nixon In China" featured on a PBS special of the Opera. Abroad, where he enjoys an outstanding reputation, he has performed with the London Philharmonia, BBC, Scottish Symphony, BBC's Musica Nova Festival, the festivals of Edinburgh, Bath, Cambridge, Geneva, and Berlin, and at Italy's International Festival of Brescia and Bergamo, and the Budapest Autumn Festival.

In 1997, Alan Feinberg received his third Grammy Award nomination for his recording of Morton Feldman's Palais di Mari and Charles Wuorinen's Capriccio, Bagatelle and Third Sonata. Mr. Feinberg's ongoing series of recordings on Decca/Argo embodies and unsurpassed artistic vision. Entitled Discover America, the discs represent years of immersion in American music and define him as an American maverick artist. The most recent release of the series is Fascinatin' Rhythm: American Syncopation which surveys the various types of rhythmic invention that revolutionized America in the early part of the century. Classical and popular works by prominent and obscure composers are juxtaposed in a sequence that documents the cross-fertilization between various genres, bringing together George Gershwin, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Henry Cowell, Conlon Nancarrow, Jelly Roll Morton, James B. Johnson, Percy Grainger, Fats Waller Artis Wodehouse, Scott Joplin, Charles Ives, Charles Wuorinen, Willie "The Lion" Smith, Duke Ellington, and others.

The previous four CDs in this Decca/Argo Discover America series focus on repertory of the 19th and 20th centuries. The American Romantic, featuring the music of Amy Beach, L.M. Gottschalk, and Robert Helps, was nominated for a Grammy in the same category with Alicia De Larrocha, Evgeny Kissin, and Rudolf Firkusny. The American Virtuoso features works by MacDowell, Grainger, Gottschalk, Beach and Gershwin, and The American Innovator the works of Ornstein, Griffiths, Cowell, Crawford Seeger, Nancarrow, Harbison, Babbitt, Davidovsky, Ives, Adams, Shapey, Cage and Thelonious Monk.

Among other recordings of Alan Feinberg are the Grammy-nominated Babbitt Piano Concerto (New World Records), Morton Feldman's "Piano and Orchestra" with Michael Tilson Thomas and the New World Symphony, and the Amy Beach Piano Concerto with John Nelson and the New World Symphony both scheduled for release on Decca/Argo, the Ligeti Horn Trio (Bridge Records), works by Steve Reich and John Adams (EMI/Angel and Nonesuch), and the Paul Bowles Piano Concerto (Catalyst).

Mr. Feinberg has over 200 premieres to his credit, among them Mel Powell's Pulitzer Prize-winning Duplicates, as well as works by such composers as John Adams, Milton Babbitt, John Harbison, Steve Reich, and Charles Wuorinen. In 1985, he was chosen to premiere Milton Babbitt's Piano Concerto, which was commissioned to celebrate the American Composers Orchestra's first season at Carnegie Hall and was written for Mr. Feinberg. He is also the first pianist to have been invited by the Union of Soviet Composers to represent American contemporary music–an invitation that resulted in performances in both Moscow and Leningrad.

Alan Feinberg's recitals have stirred audiences form his native New York to Washington (Kennedy Center), Los Angeles, Cleveland, Chicago, Paris, Budapest and London, as well as the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Gerard Schwarz's "Music Today" and the Schoenberg Institute. His traversal of the American repertoire serves as the basis of his three-part recital series, DISCOVER AMERICA. The coalition of arts organizations which has sponsored this series includes the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Eisenhower Hall Theater at West Point, New York City's Town Hall, the University of Rhode Island and SUNY-Stonybrook.

Mr. Feinberg lives with his family in New York City. He is Visiting Professor at the Juilliard School in New York City.

This album contains no booklet.