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On this day, April 22, 1944, Joshua Rifkin was born.
Fri Apr 22, 2022: On this day, April 22, 1944, Joshua Rifkin was born.
Thu Apr 22, 2021: On this day, April 22, 1944, Joshua Rifkin was born.
Like many people, I know him for his Scott Joplin albums on Nonesuch. He has such a command of Joplin. The performances are magnificent.
Joshua Rifkin
Joshua Rifkin (born April 22, 1944 in New York) is an American conductor, keyboard player, and musicologist, currently a Professor of Music at Boston University. As a performer he has recorded music by composers from Antoine Busnois to Silvestre Revueltas, and as a scholar has published research on composers from the Renaissance to the 20th century. He is famed among classical musicians and aficionados for his increasingly influential theory that most of Bach's choral works were sung with only one singer per choral line. Rifkin argued: "So long as we define 'chorus' in the conventional modern sense, then Bach's chorus, with few exceptions, simply did not exist." He is best known by the general public, however, for having played a central role in the ragtime revival in the 1970s, with the three albums he recorded of Scott Joplin's works for Nonesuch Records.
{snip}
Rifkin and Joplin
A 1901 edition of Joplin's work
Rifkin's Joplin albums (the first of which was Scott Joplin: Piano Rags in November 1970 on the classical label Nonesuch)—which were presented as classical music recordings—were critically acclaimed, commercially successful and led to other artists exploring the ragtime genre. It sold 100,000 copies in its first year and eventually became Nonesuch's first million-selling record. The Billboard "Best-Selling Classical LPs" chart for September 28, 1974 has the record at No. 5, with the follow-up "Volume 2" at No. 4, and a combined set of both volumes at No. 3. Separately both volumes had been on the chart for 64 weeks. The album was nominated in 1971 for two Grammy Award categories: Best Album Notes and Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra), but at the ceremony on March 14, 1972, Rifkin did not win in any category.[6] Rifkin's work as a revivalist of Joplin's work immediately preceded the adaptation of Joplin's music by Marvin Hamlisch for the film The Sting (1973). In 1979 Alan Rich in the New York Magazine wrote that by giving artists like Rifkin the opportunity to put Joplin's music on record Nonesuch Records "created, almost alone, the Scott Joplin revival."
In August 1990, Rifkin recorded a CD for the Decca label (catalog number 425 225) featuring rags by two of the other major composers of ragtime, Joseph Lamb and James Scott, and also tango compositions by the Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth.
{snip}
Joshua Rifkin (born April 22, 1944 in New York) is an American conductor, keyboard player, and musicologist, currently a Professor of Music at Boston University. As a performer he has recorded music by composers from Antoine Busnois to Silvestre Revueltas, and as a scholar has published research on composers from the Renaissance to the 20th century. He is famed among classical musicians and aficionados for his increasingly influential theory that most of Bach's choral works were sung with only one singer per choral line. Rifkin argued: "So long as we define 'chorus' in the conventional modern sense, then Bach's chorus, with few exceptions, simply did not exist." He is best known by the general public, however, for having played a central role in the ragtime revival in the 1970s, with the three albums he recorded of Scott Joplin's works for Nonesuch Records.
{snip}
Rifkin and Joplin
A 1901 edition of Joplin's work
Rifkin's Joplin albums (the first of which was Scott Joplin: Piano Rags in November 1970 on the classical label Nonesuch)—which were presented as classical music recordings—were critically acclaimed, commercially successful and led to other artists exploring the ragtime genre. It sold 100,000 copies in its first year and eventually became Nonesuch's first million-selling record. The Billboard "Best-Selling Classical LPs" chart for September 28, 1974 has the record at No. 5, with the follow-up "Volume 2" at No. 4, and a combined set of both volumes at No. 3. Separately both volumes had been on the chart for 64 weeks. The album was nominated in 1971 for two Grammy Award categories: Best Album Notes and Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra), but at the ceremony on March 14, 1972, Rifkin did not win in any category.[6] Rifkin's work as a revivalist of Joplin's work immediately preceded the adaptation of Joplin's music by Marvin Hamlisch for the film The Sting (1973). In 1979 Alan Rich in the New York Magazine wrote that by giving artists like Rifkin the opportunity to put Joplin's music on record Nonesuch Records "created, almost alone, the Scott Joplin revival."
In August 1990, Rifkin recorded a CD for the Decca label (catalog number 425 225) featuring rags by two of the other major composers of ragtime, Joseph Lamb and James Scott, and also tango compositions by the Brazilian composer Ernesto Nazareth.
{snip}
Scott Joplin: Piano Rags
CD re-release cover (artwork as on the LP)
Studio album by Joshua Rifkin
Released: November 1970
Genre: Ragtime
Length: 32:40
Label: Nonesuch Records
Scott Joplin: Piano Rags is a 1970 ragtime piano album, consisting of compositions by Scott Joplin played by Joshua Rifkin, on the Nonesuch Records label. The original album's cover states the name as Piano Rags by Scott Joplin, as contrasting the album's spine. The record is considered to have been the first to reintroduce the music of pianist and composer Joplin in the early 1970s. It was Nonesuch Records' first million-selling album.
{snip}
CD re-release cover (artwork as on the LP)
Studio album by Joshua Rifkin
Released: November 1970
Genre: Ragtime
Length: 32:40
Label: Nonesuch Records
Scott Joplin: Piano Rags is a 1970 ragtime piano album, consisting of compositions by Scott Joplin played by Joshua Rifkin, on the Nonesuch Records label. The original album's cover states the name as Piano Rags by Scott Joplin, as contrasting the album's spine. The record is considered to have been the first to reintroduce the music of pianist and composer Joplin in the early 1970s. It was Nonesuch Records' first million-selling album.
{snip}
I didn't hear of the album at the time. It wasn't until about 1973 or 1974, after Treemonisha had been revived, that Scott Joplin flew onto my radar.
In this rare video, Joshua Rifkin sits down to play at just about 32:08.
A Ragtime Symposium at Jazz at Lincoln Center
9,778 views • Nov 18, 2017
Jazz at Lincoln Center's JAZZ ACADEMY
186K subscribers
Hosted by Terry Waldo, featuring Max Morath, Joshua Rifkin, Mike Lipskin, and Dick Hyman.
Learn more at the Jazz Academy - http://academy.jazz.org
9,778 views • Nov 18, 2017
Jazz at Lincoln Center's JAZZ ACADEMY
186K subscribers
Hosted by Terry Waldo, featuring Max Morath, Joshua Rifkin, Mike Lipskin, and Dick Hyman.
Learn more at the Jazz Academy - http://academy.jazz.org
Dan LaCourse
1 year ago
This is the only live recording I've seen of Rifkin. I think his playing here is even better than on the Nonesuch recordings.
1 year ago
This is the only live recording I've seen of Rifkin. I think his playing here is even better than on the Nonesuch recordings.
