Marc Blitzstein: First Life - Rare Early Works (2009)

Marc Blitzstein makes a significant impression from first contact, whether through his songs, the Airborne Symphony, his theatrical work The Cradle Will Rock, or the opera Regina; a composer who is "in the American grain" -- to borrow a phrase from William Carlos Williams -- yet who is not of the hay bales, prairie lands, and rodeos of Aaron Copland, but of cities, sophistication, and late nights spent in conversation, cigarettes, and a glass or two of whiskey on the rocks. The Cradle Will Rock -- the earliest Blitzstein ... Read More

Marc Blitzstein makes a significant impression from first contact, whether through his songs, the Airborne Symphony, his theatrical work The Cradle Will Rock, or the opera Regina; a composer who is "in the American grain" -- to borrow a phrase from William Carlos Williams -- yet who is not of the hay bales, prairie lands, and rodeos of Aaron Copland, but of cities, sophistication, and late nights spent in conversation, cigarettes, and a glass or two of whiskey on the rocks. The Cradle Will Rock -- the earliest Blitzstein piece longer than a song that has previously circulated -- comes to us so complete and fully formed that one might wonder if the back story is genuinely necessary. But if one is as passionate about Blitzstein as other trailblazing American composers of his generation, who wouldn't be curious as to what went before; after all, Blitzstein never suppressed his early works, he just couldn't find a publisher for them, and ultimately fell out of sympathy with their style and baggage. San... Read Less