Castle Classics Talma, Louis (American 1906-1996)

L Talma: The Ambient Air - Ambache Chamber Orchestra & Ensemble; Diana Ambache, conductor

Label - Naxos

Cat. No. - 8559236

Including The Ambient Air for Flute, Violin, Cello and Piano · Lament for Cello and Piano · 7 Episodes for Flute, Viola and Piano · Variations on 13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird for Tenor, Oboe and Piano · Conversations for Flute and Piano · Soundshots · Full Circle for Chamber Orchestra

Louise Talma was one of the foremost American neo-classical composers of the 20th century. She wrote a substantial body of music covering a wide range of genres, including four orchestral pieces and a full-scale three-act opera.

Talma's music shows a keen intellectual mind, but she also engages listeners at a visceral level and entertains them with her originality and quirkiness. Talma frequently combines motor energy (sometimes associated with Stravinsky) with a melancholy expression, and often creates moments of extraordinary beauty, such as in the 'lullaby'‚ in 7 Episodes.

Although there is a lightness of touch in her music that could be connected to her time in Paris as a student of Nadia Boulanger, her language is quite unique. The beauty of Talma's slow music is exceptional.

In her lifetime she was honoured with the most prestigious grants and accolades (Fulbright, Guggenheim, National Endowment for the Arts), and yet her music is still not adequately known or appreciated today. In 1962, in Frankfurt, she was granted the honour of being the first American woman to have an opera performed in Europe.

Talma's work is championed on this CD by the Ambache Chamber Ensemble. The conductor Diana Ambache has done much to publicise the work of American women composers
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