Foss

Berlin-born Lukas Foss studied music in Paris before settling in Philadelphia in 1937. Though he freely explored diverse compositional styles, three of the works in this recording fall into his early neo-Classical period and exemplify his dictum that “to have a big foot in the future, you’ve got to have a big foot in the past.” Symphony No. 1 in G major is lyrical, bucolic and subtly jazz-influenced, while the Three American Pieces show Aaron Copland’s “open air” influence. Foss’s Ode expresses his feelings about the loss of American lives during the Second World War, and Renaissance Concerto is a “handshake across the centuries” ingeniously spiced with unexpected harmonic twists.

Berlin-born Lukas Foss studied music in Paris before settling in Philadelphia in 1937. Though he freely explored diverse compositional styles, three of the works in this recording fall into his early neo-Classical period and exemplify his dictum that “to have a big foot in the future, you’ve got to have a big foot in the past.” Symphony No. 1 in G major is lyrical, bucolic and subtly jazz-influenced, while the Three American Pieces show Aaron Copland’s “open air” influence. Foss’s Ode expresses his feelings about the loss of American lives during the Second World War, and Renaissance Concerto is a “handshake across the centuries” ingeniously spiced with unexpected harmonic twists.

American composer, conductor and educator, Lukas Foss, has contributed profoundly to the circulation and appreciation of music from the 20th century. He began his musical studies in Berlin, where he studied piano and theory with Julius Goldstein (Herford). Goldstein introduced Foss to the music of Bach, Mozart and Beethoven, which proved to have a profound effect on Foss's musical development. In 1933, Foss went to Paris, where he studied piano with Lazare Levy, as well as composition with Noel Gallon, orchestration with Felix Wolfes and flute with Marcel Moyse. Foss remained in Paris until 1937, when he moved, with his family, to the United States, where he continued his musical instruction at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In addition to his Curtis studies, Foss studied conducting with Koussevitzky during the summers from 1939 to 1943 at the Berkshire Music Center. He also studied composition with Paul Hindemith as a special student at Yale from 1939 to 1940...

Lukas Foss on Napster