Composer: Phillip Ramey
Performer: Mirian Conti
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0077
Release: 2008
Size: 195 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Diversions
01. No. 1. Sarcasm
02. No. 2. Solitude
03. No. 3. The Mouse and the Bear
04. No. 4. Night
05. No. 5. Petrushka
06. No. 6. Specter
07. No. 7. Windmills
08. No. 8. Homage to Prokofiev
Epigrams, Book 1
09. I. Calm
10. II. Sarcastic
11. III. Flowing
12. IV. Declamatory
13. V. Dream – like
14. VI. Singing
15. VII. Jaunty
16. VIII. Somber
17. IX. Vigorous
18. X. Dispassionate
19. XI. Angry
20. Leningrad Rag
21. Winter Nocturne
22. Toccata No. 1
23. Ode for F. D. R.
24. Toccata No. 2
Piano Sonata No. 4
25. I. Monologue with Arabesques
26. II. Fantasy – Ballade
27. Primitivo
The piano music of the American composer Phillip Ramey (b. 1939) is rooted in the motoric athleticism of Prokofiev and Bartók, to which influences he has blended sober lyricism, spicy modernist dissonance and a fresh approach to the grand Romantic gesture. This second Toccata Classics album of his piano music presents the first recordings of the early Slavic-inflected Diversions and the dark, dramatic Piano Sonata No. 4. The other works include the loosely dodecaphonic Epigrams and the Leningrad Rag, a satiric take-off on Scott Joplin written for the legendary Vladimir Horowitz. This varied recital concludes with the recent, rip-roaring Primitivo, a succinct study in sophisticated barbarism.