Frederick RZEWSKI (b. 1938)
Songs of Insurrection (2016)
Thomas Kotcheff (piano)
rec. February 2020, Zipper Hall, Colburn School, Los Angeles
COVIELLO COV92021 [70:42]
The composer and pianist Frederick Rzewski was born in the USA and studied at various universities: his teachers included Roger Sessions, Milton Babbitt, Walter Piston and Luigi Dallapiccola. He has been active as a pianist and not only in his own works, also interested in developing electro-acoustic music and improvisation. Apparently, his enthusiasm for improvisation is such that he interpolates passages of his own into such works as the Hammerklavier sonata of Beethoven. Since 1977 he has been based in Belgium where he has been Professor of Composition at Liège. He is also known for his sympathy with left-wing causes and protest songs, which often enter into his work.
He has composed prolifically, but is probably best known for his piano music, and in particular his set of 36 Variations on ‘The people united can never be defeated!’ The title demonstrates his political sympathies and the number of variations deliberately outdoes those in the two classic sets, Bach’s Goldberg variations, which number 30, and Beethoven’s Diabelli variations, which number 33. Rzewski’s work, while not of their stature, is nevertheless not dwarfed in their company, and it has indeed achieved the status of a modern classic. There are over a dozen recordings, and that by Igor Levitt actually couples it with the Bach and Beethoven works. As well as using traditional piano techniques this also uses extended techniques such as whistling and slamming the piano lid.
I enjoyed The people united and so looked forward to hearing another, more recent work by Rzewski. This dates from 2016 and is a set of seven pieces also inspired by protest songs, each from a different country. However, unlike The people united, where the variations are individually short, these are each quite extended, ranging from seven minutes to over sixteen. However, musically this is a sad come-down from the earlier work. The texture is thin, there are snatches of rather Hindemithy counterpoint and Busoni-like harmonies but in general I got a sense of nothing more than a kind of vapid doodling, with little sense of direction or overall structure. I did note that Rzewski must have been in his late seventies when he wrote it, and I did wonder whether his compositional ability had simply declined. (I am of course aware that some composers, such as Verdi and, more recently Elliott Carter, have composed at the highest level into their eighties and beyond.)
The performance by Thomas Kotcheff seems authoritative, the recording is good and the documentation exemplary. For Rzewski devotees only.
Stephen Barber
