MacDowell: Piano Music Vol 2 - First Modern Suite / 6 Idyls / Sonata No. 3

It would seem fair to say that Edward MacDowell was not only the most prominent American composer of the nineteenth century but also the first to see a considerable number of his works performed in Europe. At an early age MacDowell proved to be greatly gifted in both painting and music. He went to Paris for his studies and even while he took courses at the Conservatoire, where he was a classmate of Debussy, he was advised to switch to painting as a career. Yet in 1878 he went to Germany to continue his studies on the piano and in composing. Stuttgart, Wiesbaden, and Frankfurt were early stations of his stay in Germany. When in 1882, on the occasion of a visit to Liszt, the master invited him to play his (MacDowell's) first piano concerto at a festival that same year, there was no longer any doubt that MacDowell was now a rising musician. He returned home in 1994, but later returned to Europe for another prolonged stay. After his final repatriation in 1884, he appeared in Boston as composer and pianist, and was from then on until his untimely death in 1908 an outstanding personality in the musical life of America.