Clancy Newman and Natalie Zhu Release New Album From Method to Madness: The American Sound on Albany Records
From Method to Madness cover art.
Clancy Newman and Natalie Zhu Release New Album
From Method to Madness: The American Sound
Music by Samuel Barber, Kenji Bunch, Lukas Foss, & Clancy Newman
Release Date: August 1, 2023
Albany Records
On August 1, 2023, longtime friends and collaborators cellist Clancy Newman and pianist Natalie Zhu will release a new duo album titled From Method to Madness: The American Sound, on Albany Records. The recording features music by American composers and includes Samuel Barber’s Sonata for Cello and Piano in C Minor, Op. 6; Kenji Bunch’s Broken Music for Cello and Piano; Lukas Foss’s Capriccio for Cello and Piano; and Newman’s own piece, From Method to Madness.
Newman and Zhu’s program was born out of a virtual performance which took place during the pandemic shutdown, presented by the Kingston Chamber Music Festival, of which Zhu is the Artistic Director. A patron who was watching online was so taken by the collaboration and the music that he encouraged Newman and Zhu to go into the studio to record, and helped make that possible – a silver lining during a difficult time. The pieces on the album each showcase an element of friendship or collaboration – between composers, performers, and friends.
Natalie Zhu says, “I feel connected with this program because of the way it reflects this ever-changing world that we live in, in an organic and incisive way.”
“The first time Natalie and I played this music together, it was at the height of the pandemic,” says Clancy Newman. “I will always associate it with that turbulent time, deeply personal, when life, art and music all seemed to take on a deeper meaning.
“There is so much variety, so much richness, and so much beauty encompassed in these four works by American composers,” he adds.
About the Music on the Album:
Clancy Newman gave the premiere performance of violist/composer Kenji Bunch’s Broken Music at Lincoln Center in 2003 – the piece was written for Newman by Bunch, commissioned by the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation. This is the first commercial recording of the work, which is in four movements, each exploring a different meaning of the word “broken.” “Broken Voice” is informed by the concept of a voice breaking with emotion or exhaustion; “Broken Chord” utilizes arpeggiated figures; and “Broken Verse” suggests a song that is somehow stuck. In his note for the piece, Bunch explains that the last movement, “Broken Music,” takes this idea of being stuck to an extreme. He writes, “As part of a series of works I’ve written recently exploring this technique, this movement is made up of twenty-some bars that are each repeated four times, creating an acoustic version of an electronic groove, or a broken record that slowly develops material while sustaining an unrelenting, furious energy.”
The other work on the album recorded for the first time is Clancy Newman’s own piece, From Method to Madness, written in 2008. Newman had recently discovered a new method of composing based on The Golden Ratio, which he explored in this work. He writes, “The first half of the piece obeys the rules of this method very strictly; at a certain point, however, the music cannot be contained by the rules any longer, and it overflows into a jazzy, Latin sounding tune. From there, it continues to approach the boiling point, ending in a frenzy that recalls nothing of the serene discipline of the opening measures.”
Samuel Barber's Sonata for Cello and Piano in C Minor, Op. 6 showcases the composer's affinity for melody and song, and was the last piece he wrote while studying with composer Rosario Scalero. Barber began the work in 1932, while vacationing in Europe with fellow student composer Gian-Carlo Menotti, and finished it back at school with cellist Orlando Cole giving the premiere later in the year.
Lukas Foss wrote his Capriccio for Cello and Piano in 1946, while he was the Boston Symphony’s pianist under Serge Koussevitzky. The piece was composed for the famous cellist Gregor Piatigorsky, with Foss and Piatigorsky giving the premiere at Tanglewood in 1947. The piece is one of Foss’s most frequently performed works. Of it Foss remarked, “I like its combination of Bach, humor and American characteristics."
About Natalie Zhu:
Known for captivating interpretations of a wide repertoire, pianist Natalie Zhu is the recipient of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Musical Fund Society Career Advancement Award, the Andrew Wolf Memorial Chamber Music Award, and Astral Artists Award. The Philadelphia Inquirer heralded Zhu in recital as a display of “emotional and pianistic pyrotechnics.” Selections from her live performances are frequently broadcasted on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today.”
Natalie Zhu has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia as a soloist and chamber musician. She made her European debut in 1994 at the Festival de Sully et d’Orleans in France, she has also given solo recitals at the Carnegie’s Weill and Zankel Hall in New York City, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Seattle Chamber Music Society, New York’s Steinway Hall and Merkin Hall, Portland Piano Festival in Oregon, Munich’s Herkulessaal in Germany, and Beijing Concert Hall in China. She has performed with the Daedalus, Dover, Miami, Vermeer Quartets, and collaborated with members of the Guarneri, St. Lawrence, Orion, Mendelssohn, and Ying Quartets, as well as the Beaux Arts Trio and Time for Three. Natalie Zhu has been a touring recital partner with renowned violinist Hilary Hahn, and has maintained an ongoing partnership, most noticeably a Mozart Violin Sonatas recording with the Deutsche Grammophon label in 2005, as well as Suzuki Violin Books 1-3 in 2020.
As an active chamber musician, Natalie Zhu has appeared in Marlboro Music Festival, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Curtis-On-Tour, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Maestro Foundation Concert Series, Skaneateles Festival, Amelia Island Chamber Music Festival, Bay Chamber Concerts, Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Crested Butte Chamber Music Festival, The Friends of Chamber Music Reading Concert Series, and Brooklyn Library Chamber Music Series. Since 2009, she has been the artistic director of the Kingston Chamber Music Festival in Rhode Island.
Natalie Zhu began her piano studies with Xiao-Cheng Liu at the age of six in her native China and made her first public appearance at age nine in Beijing. At eleven she emigrated with her family to Los Angeles, and studied with Robert Turner and Li Ming-Qiang. By age fifteen was enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music where she received the prestigious Rachmaninoff Award and studied with Gary Graffman. She received both Master of Music degree and Artist Diploma from the Yale School of Music where she studied with the late Claude Frank. Natalie Zhu lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with her husband, Che-Hung Chen, a violist in the Philadelphia Orchestra, and her daughter, Clara.
About Clancy Newman:
Cellist Clancy Newman has enjoyed an extraordinarily wide-ranging career, not only as a cellist, but also as a composer, producer, writer, and guest lecturer. He began playing cello at the age of six, and at twelve he received his first significant public recognition when he won a Gold Medal at the Dandenong Youth Festival in Australia, competing against contestants twice his age. In the years that followed, he won numerous other competitions, including the Juilliard School Cello Competition, the Astral Artists National Auditions, and finally the prestigious Naumburg International Competition.
He has performed as soloist throughout the United States, as well as in Europe, Asia, Canada, and Australia. A recipient of an Avery Fisher career grant, he can often be heard on NPR’s “Performance Today” and has been featured on A&E and PBS. A sought after chamber musician, he is currently a member of the Clarosa piano quartet, and he has also toured as a member of "Musicians from Marlboro" and performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
As a composer, he has expanded cello technique in ways heretofore thought unimaginable, particularly in his "Pop-Unpopped" project, where he writes solo cello caprices based on pop songs. He has also lectured on the Golden Ratio Method, a method of composition he invented, and has been featured on series by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Chicago Chamber Musicians. In March 2019 his piano quintet, commissioned by the Ryuji Ueno Foundation, was premiered at the opening ceremony of the National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington DC.
Also interested in other forms of expression, Newman produced an album entitled "From Hungary to Taiwan" for the Formosa String Quartet, which is available on Bridge Records. In 2021, the Kingston Chamber Music Festival commissioned him to produce four educational videos to assist school teachers as they navigate the covid-19 pandemic, a project that involved script writing, set designing, video editing, animation, and acting.
Clancy Newman is a graduate of the five-year exchange program between Juilliard and Columbia University, receiving a M.M. from Juilliard and a B.A. in English from Columbia. His teachers have included David Gibson, Joel Krosnick and Harvey Shapiro.
Track Listing:
From Method to Madness
Clancy Newman, cello & Natalie Zhu, piano
Release date: August 1, 2023
Albany Records | TROY1935
Samuel Barber: Cello and Piano in C Minor, Op. 6
1. Allegro ma non troppo [8:42]
2. Adagio [4:28]
3. Allegro appassionato [5:33]
4. Lukas Foss: Capriccio for Cello and Piano [6:47]
Kenji Bunch: Broken Music for Cello and Piano
5. Broken Voice [5:01]
6. Broken Chord [3:31]
7. Broken Verse [7:10]
8. Broken Music [2:56]
9. Clancy Newman: From Method to Madness [5:01]
Total Time: 49.43
Produced, engineered and mastered by Andreas Meyer at Swan Studios.
Recorded at the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, December 21-23, 2021.
Photos by Joie Elie Photography.