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Remember

Stanley Grill composer
Brett Deubner viola
Thomas Steigerwald piano

Release Date: March 12, 2021
Catalog #: NV6338
Format: Digital
21st Century
Chamber
Piano
Viola

Stanley Grill’s REMEMBER is presented by Navona Records. Featuring viola and piano, these inventive works aptly demonstrate Grill’s unique style; rooted in his passion for medieval and Renaissance music, his compositions are as pioneering and contemporary as they are fundamentally traditional. Grill’s work focuses particularly on melody, modal harmonies, and contrapuntal, interweaving lines. The result is a musical experience greater than the sum of the instruments involved. Two themes that permeate much of his work can be found throughout this album as well: a desire to translate elements of the physical world into sound, and a dedication to cultivating and promoting peace through music. REMEMBER offers listeners a fresh and memorable collection of works for viola and piano.

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Track Listing & Credits

# Title Composer Performer
01 5 Intermezzi for the Earth "Remember": No. 1, Andante Stanley Grill Brett Deubner, viola; Thomas Steigerwald, piano 2:25
02 5 Intermezzi for the Earth "Remember": No. 2, Moderato Stanley Grill Brett Deubner, viola; Thomas Steigerwald, piano 1:31
03 5 Intermezzi for the Earth "Remember": No. 3, Andantino Stanley Grill Brett Deubner, viola; Thomas Steigerwald, piano 1:39
04 5 Intermezzi for the Earth "Remember": No. 4, Grave Stanley Grill Brett Deubner, viola; Thomas Steigerwald, piano 1:18
05 5 Intermezzi for the Earth "Remember": No. 5, Adagio Stanley Grill Brett Deubner, viola; Thomas Steigerwald, piano 3:12
06 O, Mystery! Stanley Grill Brett Deubner, viola; Thomas Steigerwald, piano 5:54
07 Aphorisms II Stanley Grill Brett Deubner, viola; Thomas Steigerwald, piano 19:59
08 In Memory: I. On a May Morning Stanley Grill Brett Deubner, viola; Thomas Steigerwald, piano 1:54
09 In Memory: II. Dusan Dobnik Stanley Grill Brett Deubner, viola; Thomas Steigerwald, piano 3:03
10 In Memory: III. Exuberance Stanley Grill Brett Deubner, viola; Thomas Steigerwald, piano 2:04
11 Civil War Songs: I. Ashokan Farewell Stanley Grill Brett Deubner, viola; Thomas Steigerwald, piano 11:46
12 Civil War Songs: II. Battle Hymn of the Republic Stanley Grill Brett Deubner, viola; Thomas Steigerwald, piano 5:16

Recorded March 2020 at 360 Sound in Orange NJ
Produced by Brett Deubner & Stanley Grill
Recording Engineers Scott Anderson & Jeff Hoffman
Mixed and Mastered by Randall Crafton

Package design adapted from artwork by Olivia Koopalethes
Cover: Guarneri (1979), etching.
Interior: Violine, 8/10, Black tone (1978), etching.

Stanley Grill’s Publishing: SG Music Publications
ASCAP: #572328152

Special thanks to Brett Deubner for making this album possible.

On the web:
stangrillcomposer.com
brettdeubner.com
facebook.com/thomas.steigerwald.37

Executive Producer Bob Lord

Executive A&R Sam Renshaw
A&R Director Brandon MacNeil
A&R Chris Robinson

VP, Audio Production Jeff LeRoy
Audio Director Lucas Paquette

VP, Design & Marketing Brett Picknell
Art Director Ryan Harrison
Design Edward A. Fleming
Publicity Patrick Niland, Sara Warner

Artist Information

Stanley Grill

Composer

Raised in the Bronx, Grill has been obsessed with music since the age of six, when his mother took him to Carnegie Hall and he was astonished and awestruck by a performance of “La Mer.” While that obsession first took the form of playing piano at every possible moment (when not otherwise engaged in activities typical of a kid growing up in the Bronx of the 1950’s and ‘60s), it was Stan’s music theory studies at the Manhattan School of Music that converted that obsession to writing music – and to finding his own musical voice.

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Brett Deubner

Violist

Born in San Francisco, violist Brett Deubner has established himself as one of the foremost violists of his generation. As a sought after soloist who has performed with orchestras on five continents, Deubner has redefined the role of “solo artist” and has given the viola a new standing in the world of classical music with his virtuosity, commitment to championing new music, and his mentoring tomorrow’s young artists.

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Thomas Steigerwald

Piano

Thomas Steigerwald, Prize-winning pianist and native Texan, has been a Piano Fellow at the New World Symphony since 2018. He is a medal winner in the Wideman, New York, Dallas Chamber Symphony, and San Jose International Piano Competitions, and holds a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School where he studied with Matti Raekallio.

He also received a Bachelor of Music degree from Eastman School of Music under the tutelage of Douglas Humpherys. Mr. Steigerwald has pursued a multifaceted career of solo performance, chamber music, and orchestral piano. He made his orchestral debut at age eighteen, performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the San Antonio Symphony. He performed Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado during their 2019 summer festival. In September 2019, he collaborated with violist Brett Deubner for twenty concerts in their second tour of China. Mr. Steigerwald premiered Cosme McMoon’s newly discovered piano concerto Rondo Espagnol in 2018, giving performances with both the Youth Orchestra of San Antonio and the New World Symphony. Summer music festival fellowships include the National Repertory Orchestra, Music Academy of the West, Round Top Festival Institute, and Aspen Music Festival.

Notes

When writing “The Whirr of Wings” – choral settings of poems about the earth – and its beauty and the terror of our failure to care for it – the work did not feel complete. The music for the finale was to a wonderful poem, Remember, that eventually I was unable to obtain permission from the author to use. Not wanting to abandon the music, I decided to use some of the material from that and other sections of The Whirr of Wings for a viola and piano work. I retained the title, as the music is intended to serve as a reminder of my own small place in the grand scheme of everything, as a being who is insignificant, yet nonetheless a part of our beautiful planet. My hope for those who hear the music, it will make them dream of an earth that is pristine and cared for by our species.

Inspired by an image of a whirling dervish, I wanted to write music that, similar to that ecstatic dance, opened the door to the invisible that surrounds us all. Although I am not a religious person, I know that, to misquote the famous words of poet William Blake, surrounding us is an immense world closed by our senses five. This music is my attempt to open my senses and perceive that world around me.

Many authors and thinkers have written aphorisms, but few excelled at this art. The ability to capture a complex thought in a simple, pithy phrase is harder than it looks! Recently reading through a few volumes of aphorisms by François La Rochefoucauld, Franz Kafka and Oscar Wilde, and finding that while the format of these books, in places, has some semblance of order, mostly each maxim or aphorism stands on its own. This arrangement intrigued me for music, as such a method of organization runs so contrary to how music is usually structured – and I wanted to experiment with a piece that flowed from one brief idea to another, without interruption or development. I employed this first in a string quartet, Aphorisms I, and then followed that shortly thereafter with this work for viola and piano.

The three short pieces that make up this suite for solo viola were composed at different times for different occasions. On a May Morning and Exuberance were composed for a wedding – the processional and joyous recessional. In Memory, Dusan Dobnik, was composed for a memorial service for the father of a good friend that was celebrated in his home country of Slovenia. Dusan was a physician with a brilliant mind and a kind heart. Somehow, the pieces seemed to work together.

Civil War Songs was composed after watching Ken Burns’ PBS documentary on the Civil War and hearing its beautiful violin solo accompaniment. It was only after writing the variations on that lovely tune, that I learned it did not hark back to the Civil War, but had been written for the documentary. Oh, well – no matter. Then, afterwards, I decided to set the famous Battle Hymn of the Republic. The series should have at least one real Civil War tune, after all. Performing this work in 2020 seemed important, as 158 years after Julia Ward Howe penned her inspired words, Americans seem to be finally waking up and realizing that the time is long past when we should have “trampled out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.”

The Bridge (viola and orchestra) 2020
The Whirr of Wings (suite for flute, viola, cello) 2020
Sea and Sky (2 violas) 2019
Melville’s Dream (flute, viola, cello) 2017
4 Nocturnes (violin, viola) 2013
Middle Ground (violin, 2 violas, cello) 2012
The Four Elements (viola, string orchestra) 2009