George Crumb's music is obviously a result of a fascination with sound. Philip Mead's performance of Crumb's solo piano works shows that he shares that fascination with variation in timbre, articulation, volume, and pitch. Mead is sensitive to the different types of sounds in these works, not only those played on or in the piano, but also those he has to voice himself. Each sound is distinct and the contrasts between them are distinct, with everything carefully colored. Mead fully and clearly realizes the meanings of titles ...
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George Crumb's music is obviously a result of a fascination with sound. Philip Mead's performance of Crumb's solo piano works shows that he shares that fascination with variation in timbre, articulation, volume, and pitch. Mead is sensitive to the different types of sounds in these works, not only those played on or in the piano, but also those he has to voice himself. Each sound is distinct and the contrasts between them are distinct, with everything carefully colored. Mead fully and clearly realizes the meanings of titles and expression markings. The opening of Makrokosmos I, "Primeval Sounds," is not percussively barbaric, but a candid statement of the earth's creation. In Makrokosmos II, "A Prophecy of Nostradamus" is large and frightening, with a quiet passage hinting at the doom to come quoting the Dies Irae. Variation 13 of the Gnomic Variations, marked misterioso, is mysterious in a suspenseful, film noir way, while the "Berceuse for the Infant Jesu" in A Little Suite for Christmas has a gently...
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