Greetings to all. I was listening to this recording earlier today and as is often the case with my daily "playlist", if I have the time that is - I figured I should post it. Hoffer is best known for his commercial, film, and tv works, including the theme music for the MacNeil/Lehrer report on PBS (Hoffer later composed the "MacNeil/Lehrer Variations" for orchestra, based on his emmy-winning theme music. It has been recorded on Albany and features the same orchestra & conductor on this disc). This is well-crafted music and highly accessible at that; the three concerti here are more than worthy of repeated listens.
Bernard Hoffer was born October 14, l934 in Zurich, Switzerland received early musical training at the Dalcroze School in New York, and attended Eastman School of Music (BM-MM) in Rochester, New York - where he studied composition with Bernard Rogers and Wayne Barlow, and conducting with Paul White and Herman Genhart
He has written extensively for films, television and commercials for which he has won several Emmy nominations. He has scored the hit children's cartoon series "Thundercats" and "Silverhawks" and orchestrated the Emmy Award winning theme to PBS's "The American Experience".
Concert works have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, the Spokane Symphony, the Greenwich (CT) Symphony Orchestra, the Concord Orchestra, The New England Philharmonic, the Amherst Saxophone Quartet, the Boston Musica Viva, and the Composers String Quartet. Divertimento for Octet (1988) was awarded second prize in the 1994 New Music Delaware Competition. Concerto for Viola and Orchestra received its premiere at the International Viola Congress in Chicago on June 26, 1993. Capriccio "Settembre Musica" (1994) for solo violin and Jazz ensemble, written for the Boston Musica Viva, was awarded a prize in the 1997 New Music Delaware. Recent works include Conerto di Camera (2006) for Bassoon, Horn, Cello, and Piano; Saint Lucia Morning, orchestra version (2006); Symphony: Pousette-Dart (2008) for Orchestra; Six, by George - a tribute to George Gershwin (arrangements of six Gershwin songs for orchestra).
I don't mean to sound tedious however I want to mention that this single upload took me 18 minutes due to my current connection; I have endless posts that have been 'lined up' in my mind, but due to the lugubrious upstream situation I must ask everyone to bear with me - more than usual!! It's an online nightmare attempting to share anything with my limited time :( Get on to the music you say? Yes, please!
Enjoy!
Bernard_Hoffer-Concertos-Tzadik.zip
http://www1.zippyshare.com/v/L9klvfsM/file.html
