# Thompson's "Frostiana"



## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

My husband and I are considering a concert with Rachmaninoff piano concerto #4, and I see sharing the bill is this work for chorus and piano (also later scored for chamber orchestra, though I believe this version is just the piano).

Anyone have a chance to listen to this work? I did a little reading and see that it is set to 7 Robert Frost poems, three for combined male and female voices, and the remaining four for one or the other. 

Hopefully my husband won't shy away from the concert because there's choral music, probably not his first choice. Maybe Rach will be a big enough draw for him. He DID enjoy Frost's poetry in high school if I recall though. So what are your thoughts on this piece? I'll try to drum up a performance on YouTube whether or not I make it to this concert, and will certainly read all the poems.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Have very little experience of Randall Thompsons music, but listening to this Youtube clip, I'd say that there are more difficult parts in the first movement of Rachmaninov's fourth piano concerto then in the whole of Frostiana, with my jaded ears, I find it quite easy to listen to, very elegiac and slow (at least in this performance)!






/pre


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## Sonata (Aug 7, 2010)

Thank you! Now that I think of it, I haven't actually listened to Rach 4 yet. I presumed I did, since I have it, but I've only gotten around to the first two, plus the rhapsody. 3 & 4 should be put on my iPod in short order.


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## rborganist (Jan 29, 2013)

Don't miss it. Frostiana is a lovely song cycle, very attractive settings of Frosts' poetry. I especially like "The Pasture" and "The Road Not Taken." That's an interesting bit of programming--Rachmaninoff and Thompson.


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