Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Dominique-René de Lerma: János Starker Among First To Give Attention to Non-Jazz Works of David N. Baker

János Starker


Dominique-René de Lerma:
When Bill McGlaughlin was preparing this week's dedication to the cello for Exploring music, he would not have known that the first program would be aired only a day after the death of one of his featured artists: János Starker.  This superb musician is our immediate concern because he was among the first of the major classical artists to give his attention to the non-jazz works of David Baker.  That was Dave's cello sonata, which Janós not only recorded on Columbia's 9-LP set of the Black composers series (now available only from the College Music Society), but included it on his recitals.  Dave's work soon won the attention of flutist James Pellerite and violinist Josef Gingold.  Some of the non-jazz audience was a bit slower to respond: I remember the première of Dave's concerto for violin and jazz band, with Joe as the soloist.  That fact brought out all of Joe's many fans, but some of those who did not wait in the lobby for Joe's performance in the concert's second half, came in for the start of the concert, which was pure jazz.  These mouldy figs endured the repertoire as tolerantly as possible, but these events marked an inception of those works that showed Dave's assertion of stylistic freedom.  We thank Janós, Joe, and Jim for their pioneering work and support.

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Dominique-René de Lerma

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