Virgil Thomson Portraits Album 1

Virgil Thomson (1896-1989) Composer, Author, Critic was a significant presence and influence on the development of musical life of 20th Century America. His compositions include operas symphonic music, chamber music and a large number of Portraits mostly for piano .Some of his best known works are the Operas " Four Saints in Three Acts" and "The Mother of us All " with librettos by Gertrude Stein, and the Symphony on a Hymn Tune.. He was one of the first to write film music and his score for Pare Lorentz's famous documentary "The Plough that Broke the Plains "was later made into a Suite recorded by Leopold Stokowski and the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra. His score for Robert J Flaherty"s film Louisiana Story won the Pulitzer Prize in 1948 at that time the only Pulitzer given for a film score. He was unique in his interest and approach to musical portraiture in that his were done not by recollection as did Schumann Elgar and others but were composed in the presence of the sitter exactly as painters do. He often said he liked to" 'work fast" and some of the piano portraits were completed in an hour or two.His book " The State of Music" and his work as Music Critic for the New York Herald Tribune 1940-1954 were highly influential. A collection of his critical writing in book form is akin to that of Robert Schumann; important documents from which much may be learned of a whole musical & cultural era. His Opera "Lord Byron "with libretto by Jack Larsen on which he lavished years of work is yet (as of 2020 )to be presented by a major Opera House.A New York performance of excerpts shortly before his death showed a real Grand Opera unlike any of his other work. Its time is yet to come It was my good fortune to work with Virgii in the late 1970s early 1980s on his Portraits for piano and the 2 Sonatas, at his Chelsea Hotel apartment in New york City. He was generous with his time; demanding , cantankerous, funny and disarming.. In conversation he'e respond to a simple question about something he'd written in a book, launching into a homily on Mozart operas vis a vis contemporary critical analysis or again of food, (he loved to cook) he'd advise the most superior recipe for sweet corn soup or hold forth on " le style pauvre. in french theatrical presentations." One witticism from his early days on a grant in Paris 1920 when funds were low was if he had to starve he wanted to do so"" where the food was good.! " He was a courteous and very amusing host. These portraits are more sketches than large painterly pieces.In doing them I believe he found the perfect vehicle for his love to "work fast''and create superb short piano pieces in an extraordinary array of styles. I offer them here with gratitude and the wish to share their delights more widely. Nigel Coxe Composer's notes on the sitters. Picasso; a picture of Picasso the man, not of the painter nor of his painting Minna Curtiss a well known writer, New Englander by birth and by residence CarrieStettheimer built a famous doll's house now belonging to the Museum of the City of New York Flavie Alvarez de Toledo, a beauteous young girl of Franco-Spanish parentage. Lou Harrison composer of oriental preoccupations and strong West Coast background Georges Hugnet, French surrealist poet and literary historian Alexander Smallens, American Conductor Maurice Grosser, American painter of still Life and landscape. 00:09 BUGLES AND BIRDS: A portrait of Pablo Picasso 2:23 WITH FIRE AND DRUMS: A portrait of Minna Curtis 4:44 AN OLD SONG: A portrait of Carrie Stettheimer 6:14 TANGO LULABY: A portrait of Mille Alverez do Toledo 8:15 SOLITUDE: A portrait of Lou Harrison 9:28 BARCAROLLE: A portrait of Georges Hugnet 11:01 FUGUE: A portrait of Alexander Smallens 13:17 ALTERATIONS: A portrait of Maurice Grosser