Maud Powell Favorites
A new edition of 43 rare masterworks for the violin, some never published before. Not available anywhere else!
"This music is wonderful! Maud Powell was really the female Fritz Kreisler." -- Leonard Slatkin
"Actually, Kreisler was the male Maud Powell! She came first!" -- Rachel Barton Pine
"I strongly believe that Powell's works will quickly find their way into the best-loved repertoire of amateur and professional violinists alike." -- Rachel Barton Pine
Karen A. Shaffer, Music Compilation & Introductory Notes
Rachel Barton Pine, Music Advisor & Editor
"The music dedicated to Powell by American composers and her transcriptions of music by Americans, including African-Americans, nearly chronicle the evolution of American music." -- Karen Shaffer
Includes 43 outstanding violin works:
Maud Powell's transcriptions -- Dvorak's "Songs My Mother Sang" and "Humoresque," Coleridge-Taylor's "Deep River," J.R. Johnson's "Nobody Knows the Trouble I See," Palmgren's "May Night," Foster, Schoolcraft and Work's "Plantation Melodies," Sibelius's "Valse Triste" and "Musette," Gluck's "Melody," Martini's "Plaisir d'Amour," Rimsky-Korsakoff's "Song of India," and much more
Maud Powell's Brahms Concerto Cadenza -- the third one ever written (1891)
Powell's story and analysis of Vieuxtemps' The Arkansas Traveler
Powell's insightful lesson on performing Wieniawski's Légende
Music dedicated to, commissioned by or closely associated with Maud Powell -- Amy Beach's "Romance," Grainger's "Molly on the Shore," Bellstedt's "Dixie," MacDowell/Hartmann's "To a Wild Rose," Arthur Loesser's "California," Liebling's "Fantasia on Sousa Airs," Edwin Grasse's "Wellenspiel," and much more
Also includes an historical introduction and annotations putting the music in its historical context. This story of violin performance in America provides insights into an important, but little known, period in American history -- You will read how Maud Powell pioneered the violin recital in America and championed American composers of both genders. You will read how her innovative approach to programming recitals transformed a nation's taste in music. You will read how she helped to integrate African-American music into classical music concerts in the context of the role black composers played in the development of classical music in America. Includes a complete history of each work and Maud Powell's role in bringing it to the public. Every musician should know this vital piece of America's cultural history.
"Maud Powell -- Long one of the most powerful forces for musical advancement in America." -- John C. Freund, Editor, Musical America, 1918
Click here for a complete list of Contents
Bonus: CD sampler of selections from Rachel Barton Pine's American Virtuosa, Tribute to Maud Powell.
Limited Edition, Four volumes (not sold separately) (524 pages; 215 images)--
Volume One -- Historical Introduction and Annotations
Volumes Two and Three -- Piano
Volume Four -- Violin
Published by The Maud Powell Society for Music and Education, Brevard, NC (2009)
Selections from Maud Powell Favorites have been recorded by Rachel Barton Pine on her CD American Virtuosa, Tribute to Maud Powell, which can be ordered from the Maud Powell Society. To hear Ms. Pine play some of the music contained in Maud Powell Favorites, click here.
Note regarding permissions: Karen A. Shaffer, copyright holder of the text in Volume One, authorizes free use and adaptation of the historical notes and annotations in Volume One for purposes of program notes, provided proper credit is given. Anyone wishing to perform or record the music in Maud Powell Favorites need not obtain the permission of The Maud Powell Society for Music and Education, which has registered copyright only for the compilation.