Frederic RZEWSKI (b.1938)
Piano Music
Fantasia (1989-1999) [7:06]
Second Hand, or Alone at Last (Six Novelettes for piano left hand) (2005) [19:53]
De Profundis, for Speaking pianist (1992) [28:39]
Robert Satterlee (piano)
rec. Mabel Shaw Bridges Hall of Music, Pomona College, Claremont, California, USA, 27-28 May 2007
NAXOS 8.559760 [55:38]
My first encounter with the music of this fascinating composer was a
Bridge disc I reviewed
in February 2013 of his extraordinary work The People United Will
Never Be Defeated! I was mightily impressed by the incredible depth
of expression embodied in that work. The same is abundantly evident again
here.
Fantasia may look from the dates given above that its gestation
as a composition took ten years but it refers to the fact that the original
work was composed in 1989 to a commission from Japanese pianist Aki Takahashi
and that ten years later Rzewski decided to create a new version which
he said involved changing “the music to obscure the tune, putting
in lots of wrong notes and kind of stomping on and smudging everything.”
Without hearing the original it is hard to know how much he has changed
things but this work is an extremely effective piece that despite all
the intentional distortion of the source material he may have made still
shines as having a lyrical core of considerable beauty. It would be interesting
to have a disc offering both versions.
Second Hand, or Alone at Last was written for the pianist on
this disc, Robert Satterlee. The composer writes that he was exploring
what the left hand can do when he was not able to use his right for a
period. He writes that it occurred to him that in a way the left hand
was often a kind of poor relation that got left with simply accompanying
the right. It made me think of the attitude of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s
second violin in the film The Late Quartet. What Rzewski discovered
was that the left hand was much more capable of complex manoeuvres than
he had ever realised. This work explores its potential when “occupying
the whole playing field”. It is a highly rewarding work that demands
listening to many times as it reveals its many layered textures.
De Profundis, for Speaking pianist must surely be unique in concept
for it requires the pianist to perform many unusual things from, as Robert
Satterlee writes in the notes “... having the pianist recite an
often wrenching text in notated rhythm, as well as singing, humming, whistling,
hitting the body and the piano, using a Harpo horn, all while playing
the score of considerable variety, drama and expressive detail.”
The beginning has the pianist expel air in an almost strangled way while
playing. This is often repeated throughout the work coupled with all kinds
of other strange noises, some caused by using the body itself as another
instrument by whacking the chest. The main spoken words comprise a ‘reading’
of Oscar Wilde’s long essay written to his lover Lord Alfred Douglas
while he was imprisoned in Reading Gaol after being given two years hard
labour for ‘homosexual offences’. In the most painful passage
to quote Robert Satterlee’s notes Wilde “... recalls (his)
failed relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas. Rzewski sets this in a compelling
manner, by having the performer shut the keyboard lid and strike the body
of the piano, all the while whispering despairing words about the poisoned
relationship. The passage devolves into hysteria, where the performer
chants nonsense syllables, makes animal noises, blasts out a bit of Leporello’s
music from Don Giovanni, rails against government, and finally
is left masochistically hitting various parts of the body.” By the
end, having debated with himself on questions of art and its place in
society as well as his place in the world he concludes that he can turn
the entire experience from one of despair into something positive and
when he is not “... torturing myself to really say, “What
a beginning, what a wonderful beginning!””.
Now if this all sounds pretentious it is not; it is a tour de force
that has an extremely serious intent. It makes for compelling listening
with the music often comprising a Bachian fugue followed by shades of
nineteenth-century romantic piano music as well as frantic crashes of
unmusical notes. The music cannot be listened to in isolation since everything
is necessarily intertwined. Obviously it is not a work to be listened
to for relaxation nor can it be appreciated by everyone without hearing
it several times. It will grow on the listener who is not immediately
grabbed by it as I was.
Robert Satterlee does an amazing job with all the works on the disc, especially
Second Hand, or Alone at Last. My only criticism is that his
spoken words in De Profundis lacked the dramatic weight that
someone who has done some acting would be able to give them.
That said, this is a fascinating disc of music from a truly interesting
and thought-provoking composer. It’s brilliantly played and well
worth exploring by anyone prepared to take on more challenging works.
At the famously keen Naxos price this represents a worthwhile punt even
for the uninitiated.
Steve Arloff
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