Discovering the Piano Music of Samuel Barber

courtesy of Naxos of America

Souvenirs & Reflections is far from a new release. However, I happened to discover it by a twist of fate; and I felt that the content was significant enough to share. As the subtitle explains, the album consists of “Early and Late Piano Music” by Samuel Barber. With the exception of his Opus 28 piano duet Souvenirs, all the selections were new to me, as were the performers. The pianist is Giampaolo Nuti, joined by Daniela De Santis for the performance of Souvenirs.

True to its title, the album devotes two thirds of its tracks to the period identified as “Early career” on Barber’s Wikipedia page. The remaining eight tracks present Souvenirs, composed in 1952, and two short pieces completed in 1970 and 1977, respectively. Listening to these performances was a bit of a revelation, because I had not previously thought of Barber as a miniaturist. Most of my experiences have involved more extended durations; and I took the “short takes” of the Souvenirs movements, which I had played with one of my neighbors, to be an exception, exploring the nature of brevity as the soul of wit.

Seven of the album’s 24 tracks are world premiere recordings, all from the “early” period. As if to emphasize this point, the album cover consists of a photograph showing reproductions of early manuscripts. However, while this album may be historically significant, I have to confess that the listening experiences were not particularly compelling. The fact is that playing the Souvenirs duet is a lot more fun than listening to it. From a personal point of view, this album’s primary journey of discovery will be to lead me to seek copies of these early pieces, through when I can appreciate the joy of playing them for myself!