Rzewski Beyond "The People United"
The American composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski (b. 1938) studied with leading modernists including Milton Babbitt, Roger Sessions, and Luigi Dallapiccola. In 1975, Rzewski composed his most famous work, a lengthy and difficult set of variations on a Chilean protest song, "The People United Will Never Be Defeated", which Harold Schoenberg aptly described as one of the most important pieces of American music of its time. "The People United" has been recorded several times including a 2008 Naxos American Classics recording by the Dutch pianist Ralph van Raat, who has become known as a specialist in the interpretation of contemporary music for the piano.
In this new recording for the Naxos American Classics series, van Raat performs three additional piano works of Rzewski composed between 1977 and 2011. These performances confirm Rzewski's importance as a modernist composer as well as van Raat's gifts in projecting this difficult music. Van Raat also wrote the program notes for the CD. Naxos has kindly provided me with a copy of the CD to review.
Rzewski's music, such as "The People United" tends to have programmatic implications in the direction of left-wing politics. In his liner notes, Van Raat explains the likely programmatic background of the works on this CD. He also points out correctly that this background or commitment to a particular political program is unnecessary to responding to Rzewski's work. These compositions are accessible as works of music. Of the three works on this CD, two have an immediately visceral appeal even though recognizably modern in style.
Rzewski composed his "Four Pieces" in 1977 as a follow-up to "The People United". The four separate sections of this 32-minute work have the unity of a sonata and are based on the development of a single theme. The opening movement begins with a statement of the quietly haunting simple tune that generates the entire work. The theme soon develops into a massive movement with large ominous chords and deep tremolos that alternate with gentle lyrical sections. Chilean folk music is an important influence on this movement.
The second movement of the "Four Pieces" is a rhythmic, eccentric scherzo with a lyrical interlude. The heart of the work is the lengthy slow movement with its frequent changes in tempo, register, and piano texture from thick to thin. The movement builds to a dramatic harsh chordal climax followed by a quiet close. The finale begins with a rat-a-tat-tat of repeated notes high in the piano's register (all the works on this CD make use of repeated notes). Moments of song attempt to break through, but the tone of the movement and of the "Four Pieces" on the whole is bleak and harsh.
Composed in 1980, Rzewski's ten-minute "Housewife's Lament" consists of a set of variations on a 19th century folk tune in which a woman regrets the lack of opportunities in life she finds available. The short two-phrase theme shows the influence of Beethoven. Rzewski's variations run the range from modernistic to traditional. They begin with the most complex and difficult of the variations while gradually working back to a simpler musical structure. A bluesy version of the theme appears late in the work as do virtuosic glissandos and trills, which hint at some of the Beethoven sonatas.
The final work on this CD, "Hard Cuts" dates from 2011. The three-movement work is a series of variations on the letters of Bach's name and, as is Bach's "The Art of Fugue" is in open score. It is performed here by the piano and by a modernistic Dutch chamber ensemble, Lunapark, directed by Arnold Marinissen.
The three-movement "Hard Cuts" is less immediately accessible than its two companions on this disk. It is highly minimalist and harks back to the music of Webern. The open scoring of the piece gives it an improvisatory character. The work is sympathetically interpreted by the ensemble on this CD with clear instrumental lines. The music pivots frequently in tempo, character, and texture as suggested by the name "Hard Cuts". The clarinet plays a prominent role. The first movements has a spare texture and is fugual while the second movement is lyrical with moments of passion. The finale titled "Like Bees" follows on the second movement without pause and makes great use of pointed, stark repeated notes from all members of the ensemble. The piece closes with an extended cadenza for the piano alone with repeated improvisatory embellishments over an arpeggiated figure.
Naxos and van Raat deserve praise for making Rzewski's music, in this CD and in "The People United" accessible in the American Classics series. A third CD in Naxos' "American Classics" released earlier in 2014 includes three additional piano works of Rzewski, including his setting of Oscar Wilde's "De Profundis" performed by Robert Satterlee. These three CDs offer an excellent
collection of Rzewski's piano music for listeners interested in contemporary music.
Total Time: 62:13
Robin Friedman
