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Rzewski - Night Crossing - Works For One And Two Pianos
Music and Arts Programs of America

Rzewski - Night Crossing - Works For One And Two Pianos

$19.99

Details

Artist
Frederic, Ursula, Rzewski, Oppens
Format
CD
Label
Music and Arts Programs of America
Released
Jan 27, 2010
Catalog #
MUA 988
UPC
017685098826

About

Because it's the most immediately accessible of the piano disc's works, let's begin with this two-piano version of Rzewski's hard-driving, viscerally affecting Winnshoro Cotton Mill Blues of 1980. (For the original, spectacularly recorded solo assault, see hatART 6089, North American Ballads & Squares, Frederic Rzewski performing.) The piece pictures its subject, a cotton mill at full tilt, as handily as any tone poem I can think of, working itself thence into a neat transition to the eponymous job-lament dating from the 1930s ("Old man Sargent, sittin' at his desk I The damned old fool won't give us a rest I He'd take the nickels offa dead man's eyes . . . ").

Night Crossing with Fisherman (1994), for two pianos (Ursula Oppens is the dedicatee), isn't quite as thematically coherent as its title suggests. The work divides into three parts, "Night," a moody introspection for piano solo; the aptly titled "Crossing," for two pianos in intense conversation; and "Fisherman," for piano solo and Rzewski's recitation of a passage from the Arabian Nights (politically relevant, of course) about a fisherman who labors through the night for a man asleep. (Presumably it is Oppens who takes the "Night" solo.)

Winnshoro Cotton Mill Blues makes its mark by kicking subtlety out the door. By contrast, Ludes I and 2, of 12 short pieces each (the longest, 1:41, the shortest, 0:38), insinuate themselves into one's affections, playful, will-o'-the-wisp creatures that they are, by degree. Rzewski does an excellent, often fascinating job of explaining his music's background and form. So I won't trouble to summarize his "how these delights came about." Suffice that they range widely in substance and mood, happily short of Rzewski's affection for maul-driven social panaceas.

-- Mike Silverton, FANFARE

Tracklist 28 tracks

  1. 1 Night 05:10
    Track
    1
    Title
    Night
    Duration
    05:10
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski, Ursula Oppens
  2. 2 Crossing 14:54
    Track
    2
    Title
    Crossing
    Duration
    14:54
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski, Ursula Oppens
  3. 3 Fisherman 04:39
    Track
    3
    Title
    Fisherman
    Duration
    04:39
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski, Ursula Oppens
  4. 4 No. 1. — 00:38
    Track
    4
    Title
    No. 1. —
    Duration
    00:38
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  5. 5 No. 2. — 00:45
    Track
    5
    Title
    No. 2. —
    Duration
    00:45
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  6. 6 No. 3. — 01:04
    Track
    6
    Title
    No. 3. —
    Duration
    01:04
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  7. 7 No. 4. — 01:18
    Track
    7
    Title
    No. 4. —
    Duration
    01:18
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  8. 8 No. 5. — 01:19
    Track
    8
    Title
    No. 5. —
    Duration
    01:19
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  9. 9 No. 6. — 01:17
    Track
    9
    Title
    No. 6. —
    Duration
    01:17
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  10. 10 No. 7. — 01:27
    Track
    10
    Title
    No. 7. —
    Duration
    01:27
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  11. 11 No. 8. — 01:33
    Track
    11
    Title
    No. 8. —
    Duration
    01:33
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  12. 12 No. 9. — 01:07
    Track
    12
    Title
    No. 9. —
    Duration
    01:07
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  13. 13 No. 10. — 01:03
    Track
    13
    Title
    No. 10. —
    Duration
    01:03
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  14. 14 No. 11. — 01:41
    Track
    14
    Title
    No. 11. —
    Duration
    01:41
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  15. 15 No. 12. — 01:29
    Track
    15
    Title
    No. 12. —
    Duration
    01:29
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  16. 16 Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues (version for 2 pianos) 10:59
    Track
    16
    Title
    Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues (version for 2 pianos)
    Duration
    10:59
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski, Ursula Oppens
  17. 17 No. 13. — 01:20
    Track
    17
    Title
    No. 13. —
    Duration
    01:20
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  18. 18 No. 14. — 01:32
    Track
    18
    Title
    No. 14. —
    Duration
    01:32
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  19. 19 No. 15. — 01:31
    Track
    19
    Title
    No. 15. —
    Duration
    01:31
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  20. 20 No. 16. — 01:38
    Track
    20
    Title
    No. 16. —
    Duration
    01:38
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  21. 21 No. 17. — 01:12
    Track
    21
    Title
    No. 17. —
    Duration
    01:12
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  22. 22 No. 18. — 01:07
    Track
    22
    Title
    No. 18. —
    Duration
    01:07
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  23. 23 No. 19. — 01:39
    Track
    23
    Title
    No. 19. —
    Duration
    01:39
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  24. 24 No. 20. — 01:40
    Track
    24
    Title
    No. 20. —
    Duration
    01:40
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  25. 25 No. 21. — 01:02
    Track
    25
    Title
    No. 21. —
    Duration
    01:02
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  26. 26 No. 22. — 01:14
    Track
    26
    Title
    No. 22. —
    Duration
    01:14
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  27. 27 No. 23. — 01:25
    Track
    27
    Title
    No. 23. —
    Duration
    01:25
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski
  28. 28 No. 24. — 01:18
    Track
    28
    Title
    No. 24. —
    Duration
    01:18
    Composer
    Frederic Rzewski
    Performer
    Frederic Rzewski