Monday, January 4, 2016

Gramophone: DETT My Cup Runneth Over: This historically and musically important release not only fills a crucial catalogue gap but sets reference standards.

 R. Nathaniel Dett: MY CUP RUNNETH OVER
Navona Records NV 6013 (2015)

 is profiled at AfriClassical.comwhich 
features a comprehensive Works List 
and a Bibliography by Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma, 

Clipper Erickson writes:

I just found out today that the Dett disc is an editor's choice for Gramophone UK.  Gramophone is one of the most important periodicals for CD releases in the world.  Here is the review:


There have also been several other positive mentions in music blogs in the US, UK, and Canada (some of which you know) along with a good amount of airplay.  Finally Dett is getting his due!!

All best,
Clipper

The piano works of Robert Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) span his entire creative life, from early ragtime influences to the complexity and substance of his final works for the instrument. Given his importance as one of the first composers of African descent to achieve a sophisticated and serious fusion of Negro folk music and spirituals with European art-music traditions, not to mention his skills as a concert pianist, it’s surprising that no one until Clipper Erickson has essayed Dett’s complete piano output on disc.

However, the wait was worth it, for this music is simply wonderful, while Erickson’s idiomatic, colourful, technically adroit and caring interpretations do the repertoire full justice. While one easily perceives Dett’s stylistic influences, the music’s consistent creativity always holds interest, even in such early pieces as the Magnolia Suite (1912); it’s hard not to get pulled into The Deserted Cabin’s brooding atmosphere and dark bass-register chords or the quirky virtuoso outbursts that keep you guessing in The Place Where the Rainbow Ends. No less a figure than Percy Grainger championed In the Bottoms (1913), from which he recorded the sprightly yet demanding Juba Dance that Erickson so dashingly tosses off.

***

This historically and musically important release not only fills a crucial catalogue gap but sets reference standards. No serious aficionado of the history of American piano music can afford to miss it. 

AfriClassical wrote to Clipper Erickson:
Hello Clipper,  What a triumph you have achieved!

Comment by email:
A triumph for Dett most of all!!  Thanks for posting!  Clipper  [Clipper Erickson]


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