| John Musto |
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"His grandly jazzy Passacaglia for large orchestra (2003) sounds like Bach rediscovered by Krazy Kat. His Five Piano Rags (1995) cast the smoky nonchalance of Scott Joplin in a Rachmaninoff glow. His opera Volpone, which had an acclaimed premiere at the Wolf Trap Festival last March, employs everything from Broadway to bel canto in a ferociously clever musical adaptation of Ben Jonson’s play. Like Bernstein, Mr. Musto is not afraid to entertain."
-- Charles Michener, The New York Observer
"Musto spins flaxen pop into golden art, with an intuitive sense of how to make each instrument fill the others' gaps. The energetic coda at the end of the first movement prompted a burst of audience applause."
-- Ken Smith, New York Newsday, on Piano Trio
“(Musto’s) Chamber Music on this disc wraps arms around many musical styles, even as it delivers on its own appealing, colorful and moving terms. The players who make up Music from Copland House sounds like they relish every phrase. Everyone seems completely immersed in this captivating and penetrating activity, as likely will music lovers smart enough to add this disc to their collection.
-- Gramophone, on Koch International CD 7690
"Mr. Musto’s pianism was exquisite and exploratory.”
-- Paul Griffiths, The New York Times
"If there is a finer composer of song with piano alive and working in the world today, I would very much like to know his or her name." -- Graham Johnson |
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| Recent Recordings |
| Volpone |
Wolf Trap Recordings
Released in 2009
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Premiere Recording of the opera.
Music by John Musto; Libretto by Mark Campbell.
Wolf Trap Opera Company
Sara Jobin, conductor
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| Later the Same Evening |
Albany Records
TROY 1109
Released in 2009
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Premiere Recording of the opera
Music by John Musto; Libretto by Mark Campbell.
Manhattan School of Music Opera Theatre,
Dona Vaughn, Artistic Director;
Gordon Ostrowski, Opera Producer
Michael Barrett, conductor.
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| John Musto -- Songs |
Bridge Records
9286
Released in 2009
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The sets Viva Sweet Love and Quiet Songs with eight additional songs.
Amy Burton, soprano
Patrick Mason, baritone
John Musto, piano
Michael Barrett, piano
REVIEW
"American composer John Musto brings a rich, eclectic individuality to the songs on this superb disc. The harmonic palette is vast, the thematic writing keenly attuned to the words. Musto's responses to verses by such poets as Edna St. Vincent Millay, e.e. cummings, Dorothy Parker and Eugene O'Neill are charming, wistful and vivid. Teaming with the composer as deft pianist, baritone Patrick Mason, soprano Amy Burton and pianist Michael Barrett make expressive gold of the alluring creations. Grade: A."
-- Donald Rosenberg, www.cleveland.com
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| The Chamber Music of John Musto |
Koch International Classics CD 7690
Released in 2006
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Premiere Recordings:
Clarinet Sextet for clarinet, piano and string quartet
Piano Trio for piano, violin and cello
Divertimento for flute, clarinet, viola, cello, piano, and percussion
Music From Copland House
Derek Bermel, clarinet
Michael Boriskin, piano
Paul Lustig Dunkel, flute
Nicholas Kitchen, violin
Wilhelmina Smith, cello
Leslie Tomkins, viola
Jim Baker, percussion
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| Biography |
John Musto is regarded as one of the most versatile musicians before the public today. His artistry as composer and pianist was made abundantly clear in 2006 when he appeared as soloist in the premieres of his Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 in the space five months: possibly the first such accomplishment since Beethoven introduced his own first and second piano concertos. Michael Barrett led the Orchestra of St. Luke's at the Caramoor International Festival of the Arts in the first concerto, and George Steel led the Gotham Sinfonietta, at Columbia University's Miller Theater, in the second.
Musto has cultivated a richly allusive and eclectic style, wedded to an exacting compositional technique. His works embrace the many strains of contemporary American concert music, enriched by sophisticated inspirations from ragtime and the blues. These qualities lend his vocal music a particularly strong profile, ranging from a series of operas written in collaboration with librettist Mark Campbell to a catalogue of art songs that is among the finest of any living American composer.
In the past four years, Musto and Campbell have teamed up on three operas (one of them already given a second new production), with a fourth currently being composed for the Opera Theater of St. Louis and Wolf Trap Opera. Wolf Trap commissioned Musto's first opera, Volpone, whose success was a highlight of the 2004 season. Its second production at Wolf Trap in 2007 was quickly followed by the premiere last November of the genial drama Later the Same Evening, inspired by five paintings of Edward Hopper, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington and the University of Maryland Opera Theater, the co-commissioners of the work. The enthusiastically received, innovative work will have its New York premiere in December at the Manhattan School of Music. Only four months after that Washington premiere, New York and Caramoor audiences saw the lively new one-act comedy Bastianello, commissioned to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the New York Festival of Song. The new commission for St. Louis and Wolf Trap, An Inspector from Rome, will set Campbell's libretto based on a satirical play of Gogol. It will see its first performances in June of 2010.
Further on the vocal front, this year Musto's Collected Songs are being published, and two CDs will be released in the fall: Wolf Trap's recording of Volpone and a CD devoted to his songs on Bridge Records, performed by Amy Burton, soprano; Patrick Mason, baritone; and the composer at the piano.
Musto’s chamber works have been been premiered by such ensembles as the Ahn Trio, eighth blackbird, and the Jupiter String Quartet. Three major chamber works were released recently on Koch International. The wonderful performances of his Piano Trio, Clarinet Sextet and Divertimento by the ensemble Music from Copland House fully deliver on the concentrated energy and bravura these works demand.
John Musto earned degrees in piano performance at the Manhattan School of Music under Seymour Lipkin and Paul Jacobs. He has been a visiting professor at Brooklyn College and is a frequent guest lecturer at the Juilliard School and the Manhattan School of Music. As a pianist, Musto has recorded for Bridge, Harmonia Mundi, Nonesuch, The Milken Archive, Naxos, Harbinger, CRI and EMI, and his compositions have been recorded for Hyperion, Harmonia Mundi, MusicMasters, Innova, Channel Classics, Albany Records and New World Records.
For more information please see JohnMusto.com.
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