TODD CROW

• Brahms: Variations on an Original Theme - Thema

“Todd Crow has…enjoyed [a] long and distinguished career… If there’s one composer Todd Crow tends to be associated with, it’s Schubert. The pianist’s two-disc album of Schubert sonatas has long been a staple in the catalog… Brahms was one of the great masters of the form, and Crow gives a masterful performance of what is arguably the composer’s greatest work of its type… In his hands, Brahms’s Handel Variations emerges as a work of high purpose and profound nobility. It’s a performance I very much like…. For Crow fans and any others interested in these works, this release is easily recommended.”

Jerry Dubins, Issue 37:5 Fanfare [May/June 2014]

“Any pianist of lesser gifts than those possessed by Todd Crow might well quail at various points during this CD, and few things are more challenging than the fugue with which Brahms ended his Handel set… Todd Crow emerges not only unbowed but triumphant.”

Robert Anderson, Music & Vision [16 January 2014]

“an exceptional foray into the music of Brahms and Dvorak… This recording…is simply captivating. [it possesses a] spontaneous feeling of a live recording while offering fine, detailed, and warm sonics to boot. Crow…is a bit of an under-the-radar fan favorite, and any track on this disc shows why… Crow pours a lot of passion into the [Dvorak] and it comes across very well… [In Brahms’ Variations on an Original Theme] are still recorded quite a bit, and Crow’s has to rank with the best. As does his Handel Variations. [Crow is] not out for novelty or effect, but simply presenting the music through a lens that sees Brahms as someone spirited and passionate, and who milks the keyboard for every ounce of technical and tonal effect in this challenging work. If I still need to say it, this is one fine disc.”

[ * * * * ] Steven Ritter, Audiophile Audition [December 2013]

On Todd Crow’s performances...

“spine-chilling…exhilarating”

The Times (London)

“heroic, [showing] endless flair, color and stamina.”

The New York Times

“stunning control and a wonderful sense of musical architecture.”

The Wall Street Journal

The works on this CD were originally recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Recorded under studio conditions, a philosophy of minimal editing assures the spirit of live performance is retained.

TODD CROW has been widely acclaimed for performances in North and South America and Europe. He made his Carnegie Hall debut as soloist with the American Symphony in 1992 and his London orchestral debut at the Barbican Centre with the London Philharmonic in 1986. In recent years he has appeared as soloist with orchestras in the United States, England, Italy, Israel, the Czech Republic and elsewhere, and in recital or chamber music at the Berlioz/Dutilleux Festival in Manchester, England, Washington’s National Gallery of Art, London’s Wigmore Hall and Southbank Centre, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Jerusalem’s Henry Crown Symphony Hall, Milan’s Palazzina Liberty, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Avery Fisher Hall and Alice Tully Hall. He has performed frequently with such groups as the Brentano, Borromeo, Shanghai, Miami, Daedalus, Composers, Concord, Miró, and Jupiter string quartets, the New York Philharmonic Ensembles and St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, and
with many eminent soloists including famed jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman. In addition, he is heard often on BBC Radio in both live and recorded performances and on numerous American radio stations.

Since 1996 he has been music director and pianist of the Mount Desert Festival of Chamber Music in Northeast Harbor, Maine. In addition to many appearances at the Bard Music Festival, he has been heard at the Casals Festival, Music Mountain, Maverick Concerts, Musica negli Horti in Italy, and other festivals. He can be heard on the MSR, Bridge, Toccata Classics, ASV, New World, Albany Records, and Golden String labels, and among his CDs are works by Haydn, Schubert, Taneyev and Dohnányi, Liszt’s piano solo transcription of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, the complete works for cello and piano by Mendelssohn with cellist Mark Shuman, Ernst Toch’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the NDR-Hamburg Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein, and the first volume of “Todd Crow: The BBC Recordings” with works of Mendelssohn, Mendelssohn/Liszt, Schumann, and Moscheles.

Born in Santa Barbara, California, Todd Crow is an honors graduate of the University of California and the Juilliard School. Among his teachers have been Ernő Dániel, Ania Dorfmann, and at the Music Academy of the West, Emanuel Bay. He is a recipient of the University of California’s Distinguished Alumni Award and is currently Professor of Music on the George Sherman Dickinson Chair at Vassar College.

www.toddcrowpiano.com

Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
VARIATIONS ON AN ORIGINAL THEME, OP.21 NO.1 (1856-57)
Thema. Poco larghetto
Variation I.
Variation II. Più moto
Variation III.
Variation IV.
Variation V. Tempo di tema (Canone in moto contrario)
Variation VI. Più moto
Variation VII. Andante con moto
Variation VIII. Allegro non troppo
Variation IX.
Variation X.
Variation XI. Tempo di tema, poco più lento

Antonín DVOŘÁK (1841-1904)
THEME WITH VARIATIONS, OP.36 (1876)
Tema. Tempo di Minuetto
Variation I.
Variation II.
Variation III. Poco meno mosso; Quasi Tempo I
Variation IV. Allegretto scherzando
Variation V. Tempo I
Variation VI. Poco andante e molto tranquillo; Quasi andante
Variation VII. Più mosso
Variation VIII. Un poco più mosso
Meno mosso, quasi Tempo I

Johannes BRAHMS
VARIATIONS AND FUGUE ON A THEME BY HANDEL, OP.24 (1861)
Aria
Variation I.
Variation II.
Variation III.
Variation IV.
Variation V.
Variation VI.
Variation VII.
Variation VIII.
Variation XIX.
Variation X.
Variation XI.
Variation XII.
Variation XIII.
Variation XIV.
Variation XV.
Variation XVI.
Variation XVII.
Variation XVIII.
Variation XIX.
Variation XX.
Variation XXI.
Variation XXII.
Variation XXIII.
Variation XXIV.
Variation XXV.
Fuga
 

MSR Classics