[Aaron Copland: Music for Two Pianos; Nyaho/Garcia Duo; Centaur CRC 2405 (1998)]
Twelve years after its release, the CD Aaron Copland: Music for Two Pianos can be difficult to find at music websites, but ClassicsOnline.com now offers an MP3 download of the recording for $9.99. The CD was recorded at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and was released by Centaur Records in 1998. The Duo performs frequently, but this is the only recording made together by pianists Dr. William Chapman Nyaho and Dr. Susanna Garcia. Dr. Nyaho (b. 1958) is profiled at AfriClassical.com and has a personal website, http://www.Nyaho.com.
Dr. Garcia's biography is found at http://www.enovativepiano.com/site94.php The biography notes: “In 1998, Garcia, along with pianist William Chapman Nyaho, released the first complete recording of Aaron Copland's two-piano works on Centaur Records. In addition to many favorable reviews, this recording was featured on the BBC program Desert Island Disks, a program suggesting recordings that one would wish to have if stranded on a desert island.”
The website of William Chapman Nyaho says of the recording: “In November 1998, Nyaho and Garcia released their first compact disc recording of the complete transcriptions of Aaron Copland for two pianos for Centaur Records. Classical Magazine wrote then that the duo, 'form a perfect match in their style of playing, their tone, and in their genuine feeling for and understanding of the Copland pieces... This CD will be the standard against which any future performances of these dances will be measured.'"
Program
El salon Mexico (arr. L. Bernstein) (10:31)
Rodeo (excerpts) (arr. A. Gold and R. Fizdale)
Hoe-Down (3:39)
Saturday Night Waltz (4:45)
Dance of the Adolescent (6:14)
Danza de Jalisco (3:58)
Variations on a Shaker Melody (arr. B. Lerner) (5:50)
Danzon cubano (6:49)
Billy the Kid
I. The Open Prairie (2:54)
II. Street in a Frontier Town (4:15)
III. Billy and his Sweetheart (2:49)
IV. Celebration After Billy's Capture (2:35)
V. Billy's Demise (1:22)
