Album Notes

In these live performances pianist Nancy Garniez presents side by side familiar works by Schubert (1797 – 1828) and some long-neglected works by Dvořák (1841 – 1904). One of the first champions of the music of Schubert—especially of his piano music—Dvořák explored the piano in miniature tone poems reserving larger scale works for piano together with strings. Extraordinary pianistic color, seamless tonal flow, orchestral effects – all of these proclaim Dvořák a worthy heir to Schubert.

This is the third of Nancy Garniez’s CD’s of intimate piano recitals recorded live for release without editing.

A word about independently produced recording without editing: it is not done as an economy measure! This series is the culmination of a 20 year project which produced many professionally recorded live performances. The Haydn / Bartok CD, the first in this series, is actually a single live concert.

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In her work Ms. Garniez draws the listener into the piano’s sound as the source of inspiration for both composer and performer. Haydn / Bartok is a recital of Haydn sonatas alternating with selections from Bartok’s For Children, Vol. II, based on Slovak Folk Songs. This CD was voted one of the top 50 picks in American Idol Underground, March, 2006. Piano Works by Haydn (four sonatas and the F minor Variations) prompted critic Charles Timbrell to write: “….The naturalness of a live performance is captured perfectly, as is the artist’s fine sense of rhetoric without bombast.” Musicologists have remarked the fidelity of the interpretation to 18th century stylistic principles. Some remark that it is as close to fortepiano playing as the modern instrument allows.

Nancy Garniez: Soloist; chamber musician; innovative teacher of students of all ages; author, in addition to numerous articles: What Might It Mean? An Uncommon Glossary of Musical Terms and Concepts for the Stuck, Bored, and Curious, 1999. Ms. Garniez is the creator of TONAL Refraction® a method that enables individuals to visualize the difference between their innate perceptions of tone and the abstractions they have had to master in learning the theoretical and technical aspects of music. Created in 1993, it has proven to be a powerful restorative tool in a broad range of cases, ranging from chronic pain to inability to read music—even to focal dystonia. For more information go to www.tonalrefraction.com.

Born and raised in Chicago (where she studied with the beloved Chauncey L. Griffith) Nancy Caballero Garniez has played the piano all her life, but spent her undergraduate years concentrating on the organ, which she studied with Fenner Douglass, and subsequently on a Fulbright grant with Helmut Walcha in Frankfurt am Main. She has many years of experience as a liturgical musician in addition to her other professional activities. For over 25 years she led an a cappella singing group as an experiment to enable people to sight-sing music of all styles in tune. Her teaching career began with an appointment at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. She has lived in New York City since 1961 and taught at the Mannes College Preparatory and Extension Divisions since 1972. Until 2008 she was Coordinator of a unique program that she inqugurated of Chamber Music for players of all instruments and levels at Mannes College The New School for Music Extension Division. In 1983 she inspired the establishment of Alaria Chamber Ensemble as a not-for-profit Corporation in NY State. (As of 2008 she is no longer associated with Alaria.)

In some circles she is best known as the mother of singer/song-writer/versatile accordionist/pianist/player-of-the-plastic-bells Rachelle Garniez. In other circles as the mother of Jacob Garniez, a French horn player.