American Ivory
Gary D. Belshaw composer
Richard Fountain piano
For Richard Fountain, piano music is as American as apple pie and baseball. On AMERICAN IVORY, his debut album on Navona Records, the well-versed pianist celebrates the variety and vitality of American art music by performing a decades-spanning collection of works by time-honored and contemporary composers alike.
Not just a chronological account, the album carefully pairs pieces to create conversational back-and-forths between contemporary composers, highlighting the similarities—and differences—in their musical styles.
Alongside works by Fountain’s collaborator Gary D. Belshaw, AMERICAN IVORY features works by Edward MacDowell, Aaron Copland, and Samuel Barber, each of which serves to highlight the variety and vitality of American art music.
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"Unpretentious and vital interpretations"
Track Listing & Credits
| # | Title | Composer | Performer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | First Modern Suite, Op. 10: I. Praeludium | Edward MacDowell | Richard Fountain, piano | 3:25 |
| 02 | First Modern Suite, Op. 10: II. Presto | Edward MacDowell | Richard Fountain, piano | 4:24 |
| 03 | First Modern Suite, Op. 10: III. Andantino ed allegretto | Edward MacDowell | Richard Fountain, piano | 6:20 |
| 04 | First Modern Suite, Op. 10: IV. Intermezzo | Edward MacDowell | Richard Fountain, piano | 2:35 |
| 05 | First Modern Suite, Op. 10: V. Rhapsodie | Edward MacDowell | Richard Fountain, piano | 7:14 |
| 06 | First Modern Suite, Op. 10: VI. Fugue | Edward MacDowell | Richard Fountain, piano | 3:46 |
| 07 | Camp Springs | Gary D. Belshaw | Richard Fountain, piano | 2:35 |
| 08 | Guide to Holiday Shopping (Version for Piano) | Gary D. Belshaw | Richard Fountain, piano | 2:19 |
| 09 | Gratitude (Version for Piano) | Gary D. Belshaw | Richard Fountain, piano | 3:17 |
| 10 | Passacaglia for Piano (1) | Aaron Copland | Richard Fountain, piano | 6:44 |
| 11 | Passacaglia for Piano (2) | Gary D. Belshaw | Richard Fountain, piano | 5:51 |
| 12 | Nocturne for Piano | Gary D. Belshaw | Richard Fountain, piano | 6:13 |
| 13 | Nocturne for Piano, Op. 33 | Samuel Barber | Richard Fountain, piano | 3:49 |
| 14 | Rodeo (Excerpts Arr. for Piano): IV. Saturday Night Waltz | Aaron Copland | Richard Fountain, piano | 4:16 |
| 15 | Rodeo (Excerpts Arr. for Piano): V. Hoedown | Aaron Copland | Richard Fountain, piano | 3:49 |
| 16 | Meditation on "Savior, More Than Life to Me" (After Doane) | Gary D. Belshaw | Richard Fountain, piano | 3:03 |
Recorded June 11-13, 2012 at Harral Auditorium in Plainview TX
Recording Session Producer and Engineer Will Strieder
Executive Producer Bob Lord
Executive A&R Sam Renshaw
A&R Director Brandon MacNeil
A&R Chris Robinson
VP, Audio Production Jeff LeRoy
Audio Director Lucas Paquette
VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Patrick Niland, Sara Warner
Artist Information
Richard Fountain
Known for his joyful spirit and praised for his “clear, expressive playing,” “mature display of pyrotechnics,” and “seasoned artistry,” pianist Richard Fountain has steadily garnered recognition for his versatile abilities as soloist, collaborator, teacher, and conductor. Fountain’s diverse repertoire includes Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety and concertos by MacDowell, Shostakovich, and Philip Glass, in addition to thoughtfully programmed solo recitals and extensive experience as a collaborator. He is especially noted for performing the complete cycle of Franz Liszt’s monumental transcriptions of Beethoven’s nine symphonies.
Gary D. Belshaw
The music of Gary D. Belshaw (ASCAP) has been performed throughout the United States and abroad, including England, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Spain. Most notably, Belshaw’s Victory Day Overture for concert band received its world premiere in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. His Oofdah Fanfare premiered in the Imperial Concert Venue of the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria.
Notes
This album originated when Gary D. Belshaw invited me to record several of his solo piano works. As we discussed the project, we both felt strongly that his works would partner very well with particular pieces by other American composers, and that we could create a compilation of piano music that would celebrate the variety and vitality of American art music.
Edward MacDowell performed his First Modern Suite at the 1882 Allgemeiner Deutscher Musikverein in Zürich, after Franz Liszt personally interceded with the festival organizers to include the young American on the program. Liszt also ensured that the Suite was subsequently published by Breitkopf & Härtel, helping to establish MacDowell as one of the first American composers to gain an international reputation. The Suite showcases MacDowell’s command of lyricism, jocularity, and virtuosity in its six movements, including a beautiful nostalgic “Andantino,” an impressively dark “Rhapsodie” prefaced with Dante’s famous words “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,” and a perpetual-motion fugue that brings the work to a triumphant conclusion.
Several pieces are in direct conversation with each other. Belshaw’s impressionistic nocturne beautifully balances the Chopinesque qualities of Samuel Barber’s, and Copland’s early passacaglia alternately marches and dances alongside Belshaw’s, with its expert blending of serial and Romantic techniques.
Belshaw’s other works include the nostalgic Camp Springs—written “as if Hollywood came calling”—the lyrical Gratitude, and the whimsical Guide to Holiday Shopping. The final two scenes from Copland’s own transcription of his ballet Rodeo provide a folk element to the album, which concludes with a reflective Meditation on William Howard Doane’s hymn tune Savior, More Than Life to Me.
— Richard Fountain
