Review from: International Alliance for Women in Music
Journal Vol.  12 No.  1, p. 52-53.
Carol Ann Floyd:  “Premiere:
Works for piano by Amy Beach, Franz Joseph Haydn, Franz Liszt, Claude Debussy. Disc Makers B0095LRNK (2005) “…both technically and artistically flawless…”

By Denise Seachrist

    American pianist Carol Ann Floyd’s self-published CD  “Premiere” features both her solo debut as a pianist and the European premiere of Variations on Balkan Themes,
Op. 60, by American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944).  Other works on the disc are
Sonata in E-flat Major,Hob.  XVI: 52 by Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), Trois Etudes de Concert and Sposalizio by Franz Liszt (1811-86), and Claude Debussy’s (1862-1918)
L’Isle Joyeuse. This rare live recording from a recital at the Franz Liszt Academy in Hungary is both technically and artistically flawless. While the Haydn and Debussy pieces provide the necessary framework for the recital, they are overshadowed by the featured works of Liszt and Beach.

    Floyd’s intention of highlighting these two compositions is very evident to the   
listener:  the images of flags from the United States and Hungary on the CD’s cover leave little doubt about her musical objective.
   
    Floyd prepares her audience well for the premiere of Beach’s Variations on Balkan Themes.  She transitions from Haydn’s Sonata, which not only allows the pianist to engage with the audience, but also allows her to settle into the more taxing demands of the Liszt pieces that follow.  Of the three Liszt etudes, Un Sospiro (a sigh), a piece written as an exercise in hand crossing, is by far the most popular.  Sposalizio, while less well known, provides a necessary bridge to the high point of this recital—the premiere of Variations on Balkan Themes.

    Born following Franz Liszt’s death, Amy Beach continued his musical thread when she later became a student of one of his protégés.  She pays tribute to her musical “grandfather” in the sixth of her variations, which she named “Fantasia—Allegro all’Ongarese,” an echo of Liszt’s well-known Hungarian Rhapsodies.

    Ending the recital with the Debussy piece is the aural equivalent of “cleansing the palate” after a fine, thoughtfully planned full-course dinner.  Composed during the “middle period” of his compositional life, Debussy’s L’Isle Joyeuse (1904) is an extended solo piece, which utilizes material transitioning back and forth among the whole-tone scale, the Lydian mode and the diatonic scale.  Floyd demonstrates that in addition to being an accomplished performer, she is equally talented in program design.

Denise A. Seachrist is currently Interim Dean for Academic and Student Services for Regional Campuses and Associate Professor of Music at Kent State University.  With advanced degrees in vocal performance and musicology-ethnomusicology, Dr. Seachrist is considered a specialist in the musics of both historical and living German religious communities in Pennsylvania.  She is the author of The Musical World of Halim El-Dabh, the biography of Epypt’s most important living composer.

  Recorded LIVE in Hungary, this rare recording preserves Carol Ann Floyd's  mesmerizing piano solo debut and European premiere of Variations on Balkan Themes by American woman composer  Amy Beach.  Floyd documents the discovery that links Beach to the legendary Hungarian composer, Franz Liszt.

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• Check this  website for updated performance and new recording information
• Carol Ann Floyd concert/public speaking schedule... Guest clinician and performer for Idaho State Convention of National Federation of Music Clubs, April 2005
• Faculty performance and Anniversary Open House, Idaho Music Academy October, 2005.
• International Alliance for Women in Music Journal: Vol. 12 No. 1 CD Review and Member News.
• Guest Artist/ Clinician at The Idaho Music Academy Summer Music Camp 2007
• Register NOW for Session I June ..-June..and Session 2, July ..., 2006
• For Application go to Summer Music Camp 2007 Application Button