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This album contains works by three American composers, featuring Copland's seminal and important piano sonata dating from 1939-41. Bernstein wrote his clarinet sonata while still a student, and yet it remains a staple of the repertoire for clarinet. "American Sonatas," Judith Cohen (Pear Records): Judith Cohen, an excellent solo and chamber pianist who also is artistic director of the Governor's Chamber Music Festival, has three CDs out on the new Pear Records label. They include this supercharged but immaculate recording of Copland's Piano Sonata, Bernstein's Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (with the very fine Eugene Zoro, clarinet) and the Sonata No. 1 of Brian Pearson in its first recording. (Other discs include a Bartok/Ginastera pairing, and a particularly nice Prokofiev CD with two of the Northwest's best string players: cellist David Tonkonogui and violinist Mikhail Schmidt, both of the Bridge Ensemble). These are not works you encounter every day, and it's well worth going out of your way to hear such good performances. Melinda Bargreen | |||
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