Rzewski reviews

Igor Levit: Life

Igor Levit (Sony Classical)

(Speak to me) New Music, New Politics

Adam Swayne (Coviello)

American Rage

Conrad Tao (piano) (Warner Classics)

Igor Levit plays variations by Bach, Beethoven and Rzewski

'Levit squares up to the exhilarating mix with pitch-perfect acuity and aplomb'

Bach • Beethoven • Rzewski

Igor Levit explores the notion of variation in his new disc.

Rzewski • Tenney • Parkins

The combination of string quartet and percussion must be unique on CD. Which is unsurprising, as it’s rarely written for, and hard to bring off. On the one hand, a monochrome medium, naturally disposed towards melody and counterpoint, and steeped in history; on the other, a vast array of struck sounds, of every colour, with barely any history at all. It could easily fall into incoherence without a composer of real rigour and imagination.

Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated!

Recorded during last year’s Miami International Piano Festival, this DVD has come along just after Ralph van Raat’s fine Naxos CD of the same work – which allows me to correct an error in my review of this. The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, Frederic Rzewski’s sequence of 36 variations on the song by Chilean composer Sergio Ortega, was composed in 1975 not specifically for himself to play, but for his fellow-American Ursula Oppens.

Rzewski: The People United Will Never be Defeated!; Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues

The political Left of the 1970s may or may not have been confined to history, but as with any such period, some of its artistic creations will endure. The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, Frederic Rzewski’s sequence of 36 variations on the song by Chilean composer Sergio Ortega, was composed in 1975 for his own wonderful pianism. Ralph van Raat responds to these demands in impressive style. His sound is ideal: at once incisive and full.

Rzewski: Pocket Symphony; Les Moutons

Ironically, one of the 21st century’s most positive musical developments is the way in which 20th-century music is finally being performed with the competence that comes when the interpreters have grown up with the music.

Rzewski: Main Drag; Coming Together

It’s impossible to have too much Frederic Rzewski on disc for so many reasons, not least of which is the energy he has devoted to the exploration of a wide variety of compositional approaches. His early serialist training under Piston, Sessions and Babbitt, his interest in both vocal and electronic music and his sophisticated political outlook have all contributed to Rzewski’s current status as a modernist polymath whose work nevertheless remains grounded in very human concerns.

Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated!; Down by the Riverside; Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues

In 1975 the pianist Ursula Oppens asked Frederic Rzewski for a work to complement Beethoven's Diabelli Variations in a recital at the Kennedy Center. Rzewski's 36 variations on a Chilean song acquires a topical significance in the light of recent events, since the song in question became an anthem for the Resistance to Pinochet. Rzewski's 50 minute-long work not only bears witness to his interest in world affairs, but is a brave statement about the state of music, embracing all kinds of styles. Let's forget our differences, it seems to say to all those bickering composing factions.

Rzewski: Piano Works, 1975-99

At 64, Frederic Rzewski has long operated outside the classical music mainstream, while at the same time revitalising and redirecting the great composer-pianist tradition towards places Beethoven and Liszt could not have imagined yet perhaps would have understood. Rzewski began his career as a formidable new-music pianist who could (and still can) effortlessly negotiate the toughest Boulez, Stockhausen and Cage scores. It was while working with the improvising collective Musica Elettronica Viva in the late Sixties Rzewski found his creative voice.

Dohn‡nyi, Bart—k, Hindemith, Gottschalk, Rzewski, etc

The Husum Festival is dedicated to those parts of the piano repertoire that other festivals never reach. The annual disc of highlights offers a now familiar mix of the entertaining and intriguing. As Peter Grove observes in his excellent notes, not all rarities are masterpieces, but Enrico Pace’s brilliant advocacy of Hindemith’s Sonata No. 3 makes a persuasive case for the work. This is perhaps the most compelling account on disc, the outstanding performance among this selection, from a wonderful pianist captured on top form.

Barber, Copland, Golson, Harris, Rzewski, Ives, Thompson & Suesse

Both American Ballads and American Grab Bag lay claim to what Logan Skelton calls ‘the kaleidoscopic and zany richness of 20th-century American piano music’. These claims seem a little misplaced given that most of the works on these CDs are by white, male, classical composers. But what the discs do explore, to good effect, are attempts by several such composers to incorporate various popular styles within their music.