This is my third encounter with this consistently fascinating and
innovative composer. I first came to know him through a disc of his most
well known work
The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (
Bridge 9392) (it is also recorded by the pianist on
this disc, Ralph van Raat on
Naxos 8.559360). It's a staggering
tour de
force and a modern equivalent to Beethovens
Diabelli
variations. Then I reviewed
Naxos 8.559760 with his three works for piano
Fantasia, Second Hand (or Alone at Last) and
De Profundis for
speaking pianist all of which confirm that he is a composer of amazing
originality. The present disc is further evidence of this.
As usual it is not music that can be classed as easy listening but it is
hugely rewarding the more you hear it. It is interesting to read in the
insert notes that Rzewski is reticent about describing himself as a
composer. He prefers to call himself a musician first and foremost, then if
pressed a pianist and only if pressed further still will he admit to being a
composer. Since his main and overriding aim is communicating his ideas one
could say whats in a name? or the medium is the
massage.
There is always an element of protest in his music against dictatorship and
injustice which I find particularly appealing. Since the
Four
pieces were conceived as a sequel to
The People United...
there are Andean rhythms within them that link the two works. This work also
has a life of its own and there are some wonderfully mellifluous moments as
well as those involving angry crashing chords. The first movement hints at
the Chilean connection before dissolving into a shattering chaos in which
the melodies are bludgeoned into fragments. The second movement is full of
jazzy syncopated rhythms while the third is full of a plangent lyricism that
finishes with thunderous chords. The final movement weaves the folk song
from the Andes into a fabric that incorporates the melodious along with the
downright angry. It begins and ends with a single note sustained with the
pedal.
Hard Cuts can easily be interpreted as referring to and
protesting against the swingeing budget cuts that have affected the arts
worldwide since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2007. The form of
the work is also cut into pieces in which differing tempos and textures meet
head-on. It is the first of Rzewskis works that I have heard that involves
instruments other than the piano. It whets my appetite to hear more as it is
quite clear that he is as much a craftsman with any instruments he deals
with. Looking at the photo of the ensemble Lunapark (the Dutch for amusement
park) in the insert I counted seventeen musicians. When I investigated the
listed
website, I
discovered that they had changed their name to Lunatree and comprise only
eight musicians.
The final work on the disc is a set of variations based upon the
anonymously written song
The Housewifes Lament from around 1850.
Again this is a work that has the thread of protest in it, this time
concerning the womans oft-enforced role as drudge. The original has a text
taken from a womans diary in which she bitterly describes her thankless
task as domestic slave. There are plenty of swings between the tonal and the
atonal. You also hear both Beethovenian influences and those from the blues
suggesting a link between slaves and the housewife. This is another
altogether innovative composition that, in keeping with his other works,
defines the music of Rzewski. He seeks constantly to break new ground even
where the underlying themes are broadly similar.
As I said at the outset the more you listen to this disc or, indeed, any
of Rzewski's music the more satisfying it becomes. It is certainly a
different musical world from that which most of us are used to but entering
it is thoroughly fascinating and worthwhile. The fact that Rzewski wrote
Hard Cuts for both pianist Ralph van Raat and Lunapark tells you of
his opinion as to their artistry. On the evidence of this disc one cannot
help concurring.
this refers to the title of Marshall McLuhans famous treatise on the
media
The Medium is the Message that came back from the typesetters
in one edition mistakenly printed with the word
Massage rather than
Message but that McLuhan exclaimed he didnt want altering
exclaiming 'Leave it alone! It's great, and right on
target!'
Steve Arloff
