Classical IPR’s Featured New Release includes three world premiere recordings and a guest appearance by an Academy Award-winning actor. The McGill/McHale Trio’s new album on the Cedille label is called Portraits.
The centerpiece of the album is a world premiere by Valerie Coleman. Called “Portraits of Langston,” the piece features six Langston Hughes poems read by Mahershala Ali, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor earlier this year. Each Hughes poem is followed by Coleman’s musical contemplation of the text. The poems are intended to be read in tandem with the musical performances.
Two other world premieres appear on this album. Chris Rogerson first composed “A Fish Will Rise” for piano trio but revised it for flute, clarinet and piano at the request of the McGill/McHale Trio. Paul Schoenfield’s Sonatina was composed in 1994, but this is the first recording made of it. The trio also performs premieres of McHale’s arrangements of Irish folk music and of Sergei Rachmaninoff’s iconic “Vocalise.”
The McGill/McHale Trio is made up of brothers Anthony (clarinet) and Demarre (flute) McGill as well as pianist Michael McHale. This album is the first recording the McGill brothers have made together.
