Carson Cooman: Piano Works

This release looks like a typical effort to introduce the piano music of a young American composer, complete with overdramatic nature photography in the booklet. That is, until you look at the track list and contemplate the staggering opus numbers contained therein; the most recent work on the program, Lullaby (After Rameau), is designated Opus 806. One learns that Cooman was not yet 30 years old on this release and also maintained active careers as an organist, writer, and consultant, as well as apparently taking time out ... Read More

This release looks like a typical effort to introduce the piano music of a young American composer, complete with overdramatic nature photography in the booklet. That is, until you look at the track list and contemplate the staggering opus numbers contained therein; the most recent work on the program, Lullaby (After Rameau), is designated Opus 806. One learns that Cooman was not yet 30 years old on this release and also maintained active careers as an organist, writer, and consultant, as well as apparently taking time out for hiking in his home region of upstate New York. This album offers a good way to get a grip on this intriguing figure, whose prolific production has sometimes been regarded as a kind of personal oddity. The medium of the short piano piece reveals it instead to be, at least partially, a consequence of his musical language. Cooman is not like Alan Hovhaness, not an inhabitant of a unique musical universe that can be revealed in chunks of desired size at will. Instead, he's something... Read Less