Browse by Artist: RZEWSKI, FREDERIC

Artist:	RZEWSKI, FREDERIC
Title:	The People United Will Never Be Defeated
Label:	PIANO CLASSICS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	PCL 019CD

"Frederic Rzewski is a prominent composer of the American avant-garde. A student of Milton Babbitt and Walter Piston, Rzewski's works have a strong socio-historical background, inspired by his deep political conscience. One of his best-known works is the colossal set of piano variations on a Chilean protest song by Sergio Ortega, The People United will Never be Defeated. This fascinating set of 36 variations explores new pianistic techniques, new sonorities, use of extreme registers and improvisational elements (whistling of the performer, slamming the piano lid...) all of which present a huge challenge to the pianist. This recording is a classic, as pianist Ursula Oppens is the dedicatee of this work and the ideal interpreter, given her specialization in 20th Century piano music."

Artist:	RZEWSKI, FREDERIC
Title:	The People United Will Never Be Defeated
Label:	WERGO (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	WER 6730

"On this new CD, Kai Schumacher performs Frederic Rzewski's work The People United Will Never Be Defeated, a work based on the Chilean protest song, 'ĄEl pueblo unido jamás será vencido!,' written by Sergio Ortega a few months before Pinochet's military coup in September of 1973. 'A masterpiece,' says composer Bernhard Wambach. 'It is a work that would be unthinkable without Bach, but also without Stockhausen, Boulez and Cage. Whoever wishes to interpret this work has not only to master a text of the highest pianistic difficulty, but must also 'take a position.' The pianist must embody a political perspective. Without such a 'position,' it is impossible to interpret this work of a committed socialist.'

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