IST OCH types Ve MARGA RICHTER
2 HINESE FLUTE \ \. BE -/ Ft De TRANSMUTATION
3 Pe), = See Va THte
E HERMI
fenT
Be
_DATEDUE and my song, as lt 1M answer,
night.
ned Ue Uluss iis
cial plano eoubetts ade scholarships. When she was
As then, when evening robes the earth with darkness, fourteen, she won the Countess Helena Morsztyn
the birds would hear a flute even as their own voice. Scholarship and went to New York for study with that
f..mous teacher. Two years later, she entered Juilliard
Hil. School of Music, where she undertook piano study under
WAYFARING Roslyn Tureck. Midway in her studies, she decided to
IV. concentrate upon composition. Her principal teachers
SAO HAN at Juilliard were Vincent Persichetti and William
Rat, poisoning my brain with dripping, venomous Bergsma. While still a student, several of her compo-
sitions wen recognition—a clarinet sonata was per-
fangs,
er Orchestra release me from your crushing grip, formed publicly five times in a single season, a wind
torturing beast, unloose my dying brain! quintet was performed at a League of Composers con-
amper 7. 1.“ 7. Chained in this grip of agony I lie, cert, and a cantata for chorus and large orchestra was
1 medicve your bloodied talons grind my nerves to dust, performed by the National Orchestra Scciety under the
spare time to I perish with my wailing prayers unheard. direction of Leon Barzin. Almost simu'taneously with
[wl a@ppicet 4 the winning of her Master’s Degree at Juilliard, she
I must escape!
ig ere 6b) Oh where is there a land, « heavenly Innd, was honored by a Composer’s Forum program of her
PS to sau "y a where I can live in peace and be free again beyond your music in New York City. Miss Richter has been com-
——heat he live in
. Fe
cot, and
grasp?
paratively inactive as a pianist in recent years, dey ot-
ing herself more exclusively to composition anc to
other
and
E354
songs
«
Where is the land?
- Rehberg. When will this madness like a hideous dream dissolve? making a home for her husband and two children. She
#,:e'm Hoch- Who will save m2, who will save me? is familiar to M-G-M Records audiences, however, ion
7ae he war Conscience, release me! _ through two solo albums: “Piano. Mus.¢ For Children
——“sy “F ie late By Modern American Composers” (£3147) and “Piano
Fur ne’s most V. Music For Children By Modern Composers” (E3181).
it- E> came to PROCESSION OF THE MONKS She has also appeared as a member of The Manhattan
¢ 1 ow York Piano Quartet, a group for which she functions as
Vi. chief arranger. She has amassed an impressive cata-
ptt ne. Dur-
Sr Ti.ch wrote
CONF. CIUS logue of vocal, instrumental and orchestral music,
Mexgireat, The much of which represents scores for the modern dance,
| Phinteoinu.s.a. (1, eter. Ibbet-
The burnine summer yields to autunin breezes,
spring’s earth bears fruit where once the s: ow has lain. a field in which she specialized for several years. Her Transmut
SUM, WHY, Ql Ue we 48 crete wart others. Since The glowing heavens greet the sun’s awakening, most widely known work to date is her Sonata For ® ®
43a
that time, however, he has devoted himself chiefiy to and flaming, pale soon, leave-it with the night. Piano, written for and dedicated to the American-
composing and teaching. Toch’s creative activities have Swift streams plunge into the sea; Israeli pianist Menahem Pressler, who has recorded it
embraced a wide range of forms as well as composi- the tides flood and fall; for M-G-M Records.
tional styles. His early music was often highly roman- gold showers of the sunligt gleam anew each day The ten songs to texts from the Chinese presented
tic, reflecting, on one hand, Brahms, and, on another, and new waters join the timeless search of forming here form an admirable counterpart to The Chinese
Wagner, Mahler and Bruckner. During the ’Twent'-s torrent rains. Flute. The essential mood of the poems is sim'lar to
and ’Thirties, he was often boldly experimental, utiliz- Man’s hour is transient that of the others, even though the end effect is quite
ing atonal techniques and even occasionally working and his course is lonely, different owing to the dissimilarity ef musical vocabu-
with “mechanistic” sound methods. The mature Toch his day is brief as the rain: from star-flung skies. laries between Miss Richter and Mr. Toch. Miss Richter |
reveals that he has absorbed the varying musical sys- And as a half-spent cloud is blown approaches the setting of words with a masterful touch,
4 tems and thoughts of our century, has mastered all ana into the web of darkness sensitively underscoring symbolic meanings embodied
ean call any into play as a specific idea presents itseli. he returns to dust. in the texts, just as does Toch, but her techniques and
3noel
P
He can write humorous music as his popular overtures, idioms are exemplary of a style more advanced from
Vil. the stand-point of time than revealed, at least here, by
Pinocchio and Circus, reveal. He can write “colorful”
UOHDyNWSsUDAL
D> music as his Big Ben Variations clearly shows. He can
be epic as his symphonies, including the Pulitzer Prize
EPILOGUE
Notes by EDWARD COLE
Toch. First, two separate songs are presented in this
recording: The Hermit and Fishing Picture. Both texts
winning Symphony No. 3, Op. 75, indicate. He has have been rendered into English by Amy Lowell and
written widely in all forms: operas, theatre music, Florence Ayscough, the former from the poems of Li
Hai-Ku, the latter from the works of Ta-Chung-
RICHTER
Flute
Chinese
/The
chamber music, vocal and solo instrumental music.
The Chinese Flute, one of Toch’s most beautiful, im- Kunkuang. There follows Transmutation, a cycle of
M-G-M RECORDS eight songs connected by continuity of atmosphere. The
mediate and lasting works, was composed in 1923.
Described by the composer as “A Chamber Symphony,” presents poems here are derived from the writings of various
Chinese poets as translated by Henry H. Hart. The
MARGA RICHTER’S
it is meant more as a series of mood evocations than as
a set of songs. The texts for the three vocal sections eight titles are as follows: 1.) Twilight (Ch’en Yin) ;
derive from Li Tai Pe, Sao Han and Confucius. There 2.) The Orchid (Liu Sung) ; 3.) Change (Hsaio Kang) ;
is no real connective in the text, except perhaps an
overall sense of nostalgia, sadness and sometiiuny near
The Hermit - Fishing Picture 4.) Desolation (Chang Chi); 5.) On Seeing A Red
Cockatoo On The Road To Mount Shang (Fo Chii 1); TOCH
and 6. Sleeplessness (Anonymous); 7. A Song Of Ch’ang
despair. The small orchestra utilized calls for two
flutes, two clarinets, strings, celeste, and percussion.
The work marks Opus 29 in the catalogue of Toch’s
Transmutation, a cycle of songs An (Anonymous); 38. Transmutation
Notes by EDWARD
(Anonymous).
Coy”
work. It is presented in this recording in the revised
PRINTEDINU.S _ DOROTHY RENZI, soprano
version of 1949, which prescribes that it be performed More music by MARGA RICHTER
with
only in English. The sections of the work break down
Ed
available on M-G-M Records includes=: z
as follows: MARO AJEMIAN E3244—SONATA FOR PIANO pees ni
I. at the piano Menahem Pressler, pianist
PROLOGUE E3422-—LAMENT for string orchestra ; :
izler Solomon conducting The M-G-M String Orchestra _
i. Marga Richter was born in Reedsburg, Wisconsin on £3547—COACERTO FOR PIANO, VIOLAS, ’CELLOS, AND ’BASSES
Li TAI PE October 21, 1926. Her mother, the late Inez Chandler- Wiliam Masselos, pianist,
w.th The M-G-M String Orchestia ~onducted by Carlos : —
be flowers of evening poured their fragrance into the Richter, was a noted soprano, who, at an early age, £3559—AKIA AND TOCCATA for vi0.‘a and string orchestra
usk, left her native America to find great success In German Waiter Tran: adler, viola, ;
with The M-G-M String Orchestra conducted by Carlos {——
a distant voice like the zephyr’s tender breath opera houses. Later, she supervised Miss Richter’s
S.NVNOM
AHL sang to me through the dark, trembling leaves. early musical training at home and prepared ber for COVER PAINTING BY ARRANG UMENT WITH RAYMOND AND RAYMt#_
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LISUTAING
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‘OuodsAAD This M-G-M High-Fidelity recording has been produced with techniques which
insure the finest possible reproduction on high-fidelity equipment as well as
This M-G-M_ Long-Playing Microgroove
designed for reproduction on turntables re
.
333 revolutions per minute. The device ¢
ADATIOD
O rsa rl ig standard quality. At each step of processing from the actual
he dio or concert hall to hws final pressing, every ote Jee head and the letters M-G-M are register—
United States Patent Office as a trade-mark —
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