Piston : Chamber Music

Walter Piston (1894-1976) was part of that famous generation of American composers of the 1930s and 1940s whose distinct brand of Romanticism set the tone for American music for the rest of the century. Piston studied with Nadia Boulanger and Paul Dukas in Paris, and their insistence on textural balances shows up in Piston's best music, including his chamber works, the best of which are on this disc. They range from public expressions of sheer joy (the Quintet for Flute and String Quartet of 1942) to the darkly private (the String Sextet of 1964). Piston also makes use of various postmodern techniques (atonality and serialism among them) where it serves the music, making it all the more interesting. This is an extraordinary collection of brilliant--and beautiful--music. --Paul Cook