June 20: Harvey Sollberger recording project completed, on Arabesque label

Recordings of music by Harvey Sollberger are complete in a worldwide release on Arabesque Records. Funding was provided by a grant from the Group for Contemporary Music. The project was managed for the composer by Gina Genova at American Composers Alliance, and Atlanta-based audio engineer-composer Robert Scott Thompson at Au Courant Media.  

The first album, "Harvey Sollberger, composer" contains recordings of five works written in the years between 1975 and 1993. Overall, they comprise a concentrated chunk of the more than 90 pieces Sollberger has composed.

The Advancing Moment (1993) performed by the SONOR Ensemble, University of California San Diego; John Fonville: flute, piccolo, and alto flute Robert Zelickman: clarinet and bass clarinet; Erik Ulman: violin, Peter Farrell: cello, Aleck Karis: piano; and Steven Schick: percussion, with Harvey Sollberger: conductor.  Aurelian Echoes (1989) features Cathy Comrie and Patricia Spencer on flute and alto flute, duo. Original substance/ manifests/ traces I (1987) features Indiana University New Music Ensemble with Harvey Sollberger, flute, and J. Mark Scearce: conductor.  Met him pike hoses (1979) is a duo for flute and violin, with Cathy Comrie, and Andrew Wise. Flutes and Drums (1977) completes the album with a large sound featuring a mix of The Group for Contemporary Music and The New Jersey Percussion Ensemble.

The second album, "Harvey Sollberger, flute" contains four works. Known as a virtuosic flutist, his 2nd album release of the series features an "early" work (c. 1963) of a live concert performance of Pierre Boulez’s “Sonatine” for flute and piano which Sollberger performed with Charles Wuorinen; A “middle period work” is a 1987 studio recording of Sollberger's own “Hara” for solo alto flute; And a “later” recording here includes a 2007 recording of two solo flute works: the elegant  “Partita” in A-Minor of Bach and the powerhouse "Tetratkys" by Giacinto Scelsi. 

The third release is a double album, released digitally, Harvey Sollberger, Fourteen Works, contains 23 tracks, starting with the New York New Music Ensemble's recording of Sollberger's 7-movement work, Obsessions (2008). Following this is a one-movement work nearly 20 minutes in duration, As Things Are and Become (1972) performed by members of the Group for Contemporary Music: Rolf Schulte, violin; Jacob Glick, viola; and Fred Sherry, cello. Thin Music / Thick Music is performed by the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, David Dzubay, conductor.

Three or four things I know about the oboe (1986) features James Ostryniec, oboe with the Group for Contemporary Music players.  Quodlibitudes for solo flute (1987) also featuring Harvey, tracks before the Silent Film Suite, performed by Red Cedar Chamber Music: Jan Boland, flute and piccolo; John Dowdall, guitar; and Carey Bostian, cello. 

Mural for piano 4-hands (2014) is performed by Duo Runedako: Daniel Koppelman and Ruth Neville, pianists. Iron Mountain Song (1971) is performed by  Ronald Anderson, trumpet and Aleck Karis, piano. Music for Sophocles Antigone (1968) was recorded in New York City, with narrator-actor William Beckwith, featuring an electronic sound background by Sollberger. The text is an excerpt from Three Choruses of "Antigone" by Sophocles, translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald. 

The Catskill Woodwind Quintet recorded Humble Heart (1982), featuring Floyd Hebert, flute; Rene Prins, oboe; Timothy Perry, clarinet; Stephen Walt, bassoon; and Julia Hasbrouck Clay, horn. Two Oboes Troping features Peggy Pearson on oboe, followed by Compositions (1961) featuring Harvey Sollberger, flute; Joel Krosnik, cello; and Charles Wuorinen, piano.

Taking Measures (1987) is the last work on the album, featuring Benjamin Hudson, violin; and James Winn, piano.  

Active as a musician for 82 years (as of 2024), Harvey Sollberger in 1942, at the age of four, began to study the accordion under the tutelage of Elmer Young, a dance band leader in hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The following year won radio station WMT’s Rath Talent Revue competition performing “The Prune Song.” Flute studies began: 1949. Winner of the Major Landers Award of the Iowa Bandmasters Association: 1956. Composition studies at the University of Iowa: 1958 – 1960. Moved to New York City for composition studies at Columbia University: 1960. In May, 1961 performed in a concert of Edgard Varese’s works conducted by Robert Craft at Town Hall, NYC. In January, 1962 performed Stefan Wolpe’s “Piece in Two Parts” for flute and piano with David Tudor on a NYC ISCM concert. Shortly thereafter performed the alto flute part of Pierre Boulez’s “Le marteau sans maitre” in Carnegie Hall, Champaign-Urbana, Chicago, and Cambridge. Varese and Stefan Wolpe were major influences at this time.

Scores are available at ACA.