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A Sure Affinity

Jocelyn Swigger plays
American piano music -
and impresses
HOWARD SMITH

'... bold dissonances, conveyed with commanding assurance.'

Jocelyn Swigger - Rhythms and Blues - American Piano Music. © 2010 Con Brio Recordings

What fun! This seriously entertaining programme encompasses early ragtime of Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (also known as Jelly Roll Morton, 1885-1941) and minimalist John Adams' China Gates (1977-78), 'oscillating', says Adams, 'between two modal worlds'.

Swigger's mix is enlivened further with Samuel Barber's first published solo piano piece, Excursions, Op 20: quintessential American idioms with a contemporary technical vocabulary.

Jocelyn Anne Kovaleski Swigger has degrees in piano and English from Oberlin College and Oberlin Conservatory. Her masters in piano performance, pedagogy of theory and a doctorate (musical arts) are from Eastman School of Music...

Copyright © 7 September 2011 Howard Smith,
Masterton, New Zealand

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CD INFORMATION: JOCELYN SWIGGER - RHYTHMS & BLUES

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PIANO

JOHN ADAMS

SAMUEL BARBER

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