Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
What sets this version of Frederic Rzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated is not simply Stephen Drury's crisp, wide-range on piano. New Albion Records elected to license Sergio Ortega and Quilapayun singing the original tune to a rousing crowd. So when Drury takes over the melody, it's a powerful, rich, and even triumphant switch. Rzewski's got long legs in the New Music world, reaching back to his days in the 1960s as a maverick avant-garde pianist and co-founder of Musica Elettronica Viva in Italy. The beauty of The People United is in its endless variations, as Rzewski spins the constituent chords and notes into glorious, long phrases and tiny, quiet nuances--a total of 38 tracks in all. As a political event, this is a legendary piece as well, in its birth in Chile just prior to Pinochet's military coup and the music's subsequent meaning for so many political activists. --Andrew Bartlett

Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated, Music, Sergio Ortega, Frederic Rzewski, Stephen Drury, 20th/21st Century Variations for Keyboard, Chamber Music & Recitals, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Keyboard, Miscellaneous, Miscellaneous Music

Average customer rating:

politics and music or simply just music now?

Superb performance of a masterpiece

Hamelin and Rzewski are awesome United

Post-modern interpretation of a legendary work

Very cool variations

Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated!

Manufacturer: Hyperion UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Tracks:

The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Thema: With Determination
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 1: Weaving; Delicate But Firm
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 2: With Firmness
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 3: Slightly Slower, With Expressive Nuances
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 4: Marcato
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 5: Dreamlike, Frozen
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 6: Same Tempo As Beginning
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 7: Tempo (Lightly, Impatiently)
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 8: With Agility; Not Too Much Pedal; Crisp
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 9: Evenly
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 10: Comodo, Recklessly
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 11: Temp I. Like Fragments Of An Absent Melody - In Strict Time
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 12
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 13: Tempo = 72
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 14: A Bit Faster, Optimistically
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 15: Flexible, Like An Improvisation
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 16: Same Tempo As Preceding, With Fuctuations; Much Pedal
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 17: LH Strictly - RH Freely, Roughly As In Space
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 18
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 19: With Energy
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 20: Crisp, Precise
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 21: Relentless, Uncompromising
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 22
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 23: As Fast As Possible With Some Rubato
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 24
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 25: With Tempo Fluctuations
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 26: In A Militant Manner
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 27: Tenderly, And With A Hopeful Expression
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 28
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 29
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 30
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 31
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 32
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 33
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 34
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 35
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Variation 36
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Cadenza (Optional Improvisation)
The People United Will Never Be Defeated!: Thema: Tempo I
Down by the Riverside
Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues

Amazon.com

Frederic Rzewski's homage to Latin American liberation struggles is well represented, with stunning interpretations by such luminaries as Stephen Drury and Ursula Oppens prior to this version by Marc-André Hamelin. Drury's version might well be the high-water mark, in part because New Albion Records wisely included a rousing 1975 live version of the original Sergio Ortega liberation anthem with Quilapayun and thousands of singers to give the piano performance context.

But comparing two versions of these 36 variations on the song's theme is fraught, given Rzewski's heavily improvisational performance instructions (e.g., to play variation 11 "like fragments of an absent melody--in strict time," variation 27 "Tenderly, and with a hopeful expression"). Hamelin takes the piece more strictly and in more clearly virtuosic terms than Drury, just as he's taken Scriabin and Medtner. He starts off stronger and paces himself differently, sometimes faster, sometimes slower, but always more deliberately. People is a work prone to radically different interpretations, and while it's easy to compare Hamelin and Drury, it's musically better to take each on its own. It's folksy, rootsy music that gets microtonal in fragments and deconstructs the melody so thoroughly that it'll be 36 times lovelier when you're done listening. The added bonus of Hamelin's version is the inclusion of the warm "Down by the Riverside" and "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues," both given the theme-restatement-improvisation processing treatment that marks Rzewski's unparalleled work in traditional folk musics. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

politics and music or simply just music now?.......2004-11-30

I find it diffucult listening to this work. It certainly has entered the world piano repertoire, at least a dozen pianists play this work. Curious how I still prefer Rzewski himself. Perhaps it is his combustible energy and anarchistic tendencies,his innovative demaeanor sitting at the piano,where he can take off into a free improvisation at any moment. That's what makes his performance(s) special or compelling than the others. Oppens by comparison is rather timid and tenuous,even if overwhelmingly polished and correct as correct can be. Still politics is a dirty business, and music cannot be precious then or cloistered within some special aesthetic preserve. I think that is where we want it to be, for all of the pianists who play this work do so within bourgeois venues,with large ticket prices, hardly the place for working people, and hardly a place these various pianists would care to alter.( I don't see this work played at worker meetings,or fundraisers,or Socialist conventions) Pianists have careers you know,one devoted to making as much money as possible.

When this work graced the globe in the late Seventies it was indeed incredibly necessary. I guess it still is a necessary work,given the change post 9/11 in paradigm,added to the virutalizations and digitalizations of culture now.
Live music it seems and music played from sheet music in a public place, in and of itself is subversive within the neo-liberal order. What time does to music(if it wears it away or morphes its content) is curious to ponder. How much shelf-life is within any musical work irrespective of its content, context or affinity. I think Rzewski post-modern masterwork still has resonance within that context.

Great that Hamelin chose this work when he could have easily simply chosen another Sorabji or Finnissy work for contemplation.

Superb performance of a masterpiece.......2004-09-07

During the 1970s, the inspiring pianist Ursula Oppens commissioned Rzewski to write a set of variations that she would perform at Carnegie Hall together with Beethoven's Diabelli Variations. The result was a masterpiece of 20th century Romanticism, continuing the clear line from Beethoven through Brahms that faltered with the deaths of McDowell, Medtner, and Rachmaninov in the first half of the 20th century. Rzewski takes a catchy tune, a Chilean protest song, and pulls it apart in a multitude of ways, each subset of variations teasing the listener with increasingly remote references to the original melody. From time to time the effect verges on noise, only to be relieved by a lyrical or passionate return to harmony and tunefulness. As a set of variations, this piece deserves to be classed with the Diabelli Variations and Mendelssohn's equally outstanding Variations Serieuses.

While Oppens's performance of Rzewski's "The People United Will Never Be Defeated" was a justifiably famous landmark, doing full justice to the formidable challenge of bringing coherence to a work of such complexity, Marc Andre Hamelin offers something very special in this recording --- a transcendental technique in the original sense of Liszt's term, namely the ability to play difficult passages with such limpid clarity and evenness that the listener's attention is not diverted from the music by an awareness of effort.

The combination of Rzewski and Hamelin is irresistible and results in one of the most intense and rewarding listening experiences the piano aficionado can hope for. Hamelin's genius is that his technical virtuosity is never employed for empty display, always to thoughtfully package an insightful interpretation. Intellectually, he is as profound as Brendel, while physically having far greater resources at his disposal. He is a truly remarkable pianist, here playing a truly remarkable work. Having heard Oppens and Hamelin play these variations, each infusing the music with their distinctive personalities, there is only one other pianist whose treatment, were he ever to essay such, I would dearly like to hear --- Lang Lang, the Chinese pianist whose technique like Hamelin's is transcendental and whose innate musicality restrains youthful bravura so that delicacy and control become the features of his performances.

Hamelin and Rzewski are awesome United.......2003-08-04

This is a work of the utmost technical difficulty and yet Hamelin sails through it as if it were no more imposing than Hanon Exercises - and that is by no means to suggest that the playing is mechanical - far from. Every variation is treated to its own unique shadings and nuances that stand on their own as well as successfully integrating everything played before. The work radiates and contemplates. This work is truly a masterpiece . Add Hamelin and it is a meeting of two masters. Highly recommended. *****

Post-modern interpretation of a legendary work.......2002-06-16

Everything that can be said has be said about Rzewki's 36 Variations on "The People United Shall Never be Defeated!". It is an amazing work that hopefully, and should, stand the test of time and go down as one of the true benchmarks in the classical opus. It is a ravashing series of variations, which are only more amazing when one comes to understand the underlying structure that Rzewski used as his formal blueprint. It is a work of pure genious that must be heard, as words cannot describe it or even begin to do it justice. From the determined mood of the opening theme through the final cadenza and conclusion, the listener is treated to an array of styles an statements (ranging from the blues, to impressions of Stockhausen's 'Klavierstucke X', and many many others) all inevitably leading back to the final declaration, and NEVER losing the spirit of the tune throughout.

This work provides American classical piano music with a companion book-end to Ives' Piano Sonata No. 2 "Concord, Mass 1840 - 1860" as truly great, and monumental (!!!), piano works which provide the classical community to the ultimate statements in music.

Marc-Andre Hamelin is a pianist who ventures towards the gigantic of the piano repertoire. With that being said, it should come as no suprise that he chose to record this great work (since he has also recorded Alkan, Ives' "Concord" Sonata, and ALL of Godowsky's 53 Studies on Chopin's Etudes). With that being said, it is oh so interesting to hear his reading of "The People United". It is so vastly different from Rzewski's own performance as Hammelin performs it with the classical virtuoso's touch and feel. He is much more straight forward with his pace and use of rubato, but the end result is fantastic. A high degree of determination and invitability can be felt in Mr. Hamelin's performance, which is very fitting of the mood of the original song. Also, there is no mistaking the healthy vitality which resonates through every note. Combining all of these elements creates a performance which is truly special.

Do not hesitate one second to purchase this album, as the combination of modern writing laced with classical sensibilities creates a truly unique musical experience that should not be missed.

Very cool variations.......2001-03-08

This 'The people united will never be defeated!(El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!)' is not originally composed by Rzewski. This music is the song which was sung by Chileans who struggled to acquire liberty and right againt despotic Chilean government in 1960s. Rzewski borrowed this song and arrange it for the solo piano. You can listen to the theme of the song in 1st track, which is such a beautiful melody. He, then, made 36 variations with various techiques such as harmony, fugue, tonal way, atonal way, and so on. Even if you feel difficulties in some variations which are composed with atonal way, I'm sure, you would not abandon the disk which you listen to, because the variations are so beatiful and brilliant, and Hamelin's performance is so incredible! After 36th variation, you can listen to the main theme again, which is more solemn than first one. In conclusion, this music is orinally popular song leading listeners to a deep hollow which fascinate them with various classical composition techniques, and with Hamelin's wonderful performance. The people listen to it will never be disappointed!

Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated

Average customer rating:

A great recording
Important, enduring work
A triumph of musical architecture and intensity
This performance will never be defeated!
Magnificent

Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated

Manufacturer: New Albion Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000000R3N
Release Date: 1994-03-01

Tracks:

El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!
The People United Will Never Be Defeated
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 1
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 2
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 3
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 4
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 5
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 6
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 7
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 8
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 9
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 10
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 11
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 12
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 13
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 14
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 15
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 16
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 17
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 18
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 19
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 20
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 21
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 22
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 23
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 24
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 25
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 26
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 27
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 28
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 29
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 30
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 31
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 32
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 33
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 34
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 35
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 36
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido!: Variation 37

Amazon.com

What sets this version of Frederic Rzewski's The People United Will Never Be Defeated is not simply Stephen Drury's crisp, wide-range on piano. New Albion Records elected to license Sergio Ortega and Quilapayun singing the original tune to a rousing crowd. So when Drury takes over the melody, it's a powerful, rich, and even triumphant switch. Rzewski's got long legs in the New Music world, reaching back to his days in the 1960s as a maverick avant-garde pianist and co-founder of Musica Elettronica Viva in Italy. The beauty of The People United is in its endless variations, as Rzewski spins the constituent chords and notes into glorious, long phrases and tiny, quiet nuances--a total of 38 tracks in all. As a political event, this is a legendary piece as well, in its birth in Chile just prior to Pinochet's military coup and the music's subsequent meaning for so many political activists. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

A great recording.......2007-01-21

Of the three performances of this piece that I've heard, this is the best one aside from a live performance that I heard that was absolutely sensational. The piece itself is dinosauric in scope. It's an absolute monster that has an incredible message and requires superhuman technique from the performer. Drury's execution of the piece is quite good and filled with emotion and his technical prowess is very present on this recording. It's also great that this recording offers a version of the theme ("El Pueblo Unido Jamas Sera Vencido") in more or less it's original setting. The only thing I could have asked from from Drury is to have employed the optional improvisation that Rzewski offers to the performer after the 36 variations that really can take the piece to a new level. While this recording is really great, I would really like to get my hands on a recording with the improvisation at the end.

Important, enduring work.......2006-10-14

The preceding reviewers of this piece have done a superb job in examining its merits and this fine performance, so I will not add to their comments.

In my opinion, this work should be ranked among some of the fine mammoths of twentieth-century piano music, including Sorabji's "Opus Clavicembalisticum" and Messiaen's "Vingt Regards sur L'Enfant-Jesus."

I am no Marxist, but listeners of all political persuasions can enjoy this piece because it does hold one's interest through all of the variations that Rzewski weaves from the theme.

This is the only recording I've heard, so I can't really compare it to others, but this was one of those discs that I just decided to buy one day without having ever heard the music.

It became a welcome addition to my CD collection.

I hope that you, too, will try this.

A triumph of musical architecture and intensity.......2001-04-15

This is one of the true masterpieces of piano literature from the latter half of the 20th century. Some have called "el pueblo unido..." the Diabelli-variations of the 20th century. The piece is a caleidoscope of musical styles, ranging from romanticism to minimalism and to percussive mechanical bursts, all these elements follow a compelling emotional and architectural logic. I have heard the recent Hamelin CD and this earlier recording by Stephen Drury. I find Drury's contribution more convincing since there is more music in it. The passion inherent to the theme itself and the musical contrasts of the variations are more effectively portrayed in Drury's version, I think. Hamelin is good as well but the manual execution gets sometimes over the emotional intensity of the music.

This performance will never be defeated!.......2000-11-25

I remember reading about this piece and thinking that series of 36 variations would be a total snore. Then I read that the variations were based on a Chilean folk song from the revolution & I got intrigued. I decided to sample the pieces on the internet & I liked what I heard. I was attracted to this version in particular because it has a recording of the folk song before the Rzewski variations begin. I think its good to be able to hear the work that inspired the composer.

After I ordered the disc and was able to listen to the whole thing, I realized what an absolute work of genius this is. The work is broken down into six sections of six variations each. Then there are "rules" governing each of the six subsections. The variations are subtle, beautiful, melodic, dissonant, chaotic & combinations of all of that. It is really amazing the variety he has achieved.

In addition to the pieces being superb, Stephen Drury's performance is as good as one could hope for. His performance is sharp & crisp. Not only is it technically great, but its rendered with warmth & great passion. The performer obviously really enjoys playing this too.

Great sound, great performance, great piece. This is what classical music is all about.

Magnificent.......2000-01-12

I can't review this disc objectively. Two years ago I sat not more than ten feet from Drury and watched him perform this marathon piece at the Boston Conservatory. I was blown away.

When I listen to the CD with my eyes closed, I can still see Drury's lean, powerful hands prancing and stomping up and down the keyboard. It's a superb performance of an inventive, modern (though very accessible) set of variations.

Rzewski Plays Rzewski: Piano Works 1975-1999
Average customer rating:

Excellent

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incredible playing of works with mixed content/concept

Rzewski Plays Rzewski: Piano Works 1975-1999
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Manufacturer: Nonesuch
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Amazon.com

From his 1975 mega-variation set, The People United Will Never Be Defeated, to his eight-hour "novel for piano," The Road, Frederic Rzewski breathed new life, passion, and vitality into the long dormant composer-pianist tradition. Political and social issues provide a subtext from which Rzewski's musical imagination explodes with purposeful virtuosity, stylistic freedom, and high drama. He can conjure slow droplets of notes on a dark, still background ("A Life"), only to cram and compress a multitude of disparate popular themes within a larger, traditional framework (Sonata for Piano), or integrate music and spoken words to a level where they cannot exist without the other ("De Profundis"). Rzewski the composer provides Rzewski the pianist plenty of opportunity to display his ingenious improvisatory mettle: his cadenzas for "Mein Yingele, Which Side Are You On" particularly dazzle. There are, to be sure, other ways to play this music, such as Marc-André Hamelin's suavely proficient People United and Paul Jacobs's authoritative premiere recording of the North American Ballads. But the elemental force and personality defining Rzewski's pianism leave as indelible an imprint as his music. No lover of contemporary piano music should miss this important, superbly annotated release. --Jed Distler

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2005-10-07

Rzewski is one of the greatest composers of our time.
Definately a must have!

Rzewski's 7 CD Compilation.......2004-01-30

7 Discs of amazing piano performances from Rzewski, and this time around he's playing his own music. Highlights: First track off 1st CD: "North American Ballads (4) for piano, Nos 1-04", an excellent introduction to this compilation. Worth the money? ...Ahh, I dunno.. I hate giving my money away to loony liberals, but in this case, his music is brilliant so I found my purchase well worth it.

incredible playing of works with mixed content/concept.......2002-11-18

Rzewski said he never developed a style or musical language,but if you work your way through all seven disks here there is actually a musical language which emerges and a static dimension as well to Rzewski's creativity.
His music demands a strong subject, an inflammatory one if possible to get his improvisatory creative imagination in gear, as his celebrated solidarity exhibited in the "36 Variations" on the "The People United Will Never Be Defeated" which to my ears still remains the high point of all these disks. His musical language is magnetized around simple contrasts,timbral virtuosity and variations on the music materials he selects, as even the "North American Ballads" suggest,which also maintains a fascination over the years.Equally if not more timbrally fascinating are his "Four Pieces" which are not here.Rzewski I beleive is a composer like Stravinsky, he needs something to manipulate that is already formed in the real world,very postmodern in orientation and his music then never claims a magical dimension where moments can synergize amongst/between itself,themselves, as exhibited by his political brethren as Christian Wolff or Luigi Nono. He does however utilize the entire 20th Century piano vocabulary, but is always drawn toward a what we can refer to as Rzewski-esque chromaticism, a dovetailing of the fifth semitone interval, as: c-e-f#-b-Bb-f,something you may find in the piano music of Karol Syzmanowski. The "Fantasia" opening here is a good example of this,played with great passion and might also suggest the harmonic meaderings of Busoni.Also the 26 miniature variations on "Mayn Yingele" had an interesting subject dedicated to the memory of Kristallnacht, the desecration of synagoges in Germany,the story of a Jewish man working 18 hour days who never sees his son, only sleeping.The musical form of "miniature" is quite interesting,and one Rzewski knows quite well.
He has impressive TV miniature Operas entitled "Chains".
These miniature variations are followed with a Cadenza prior to Variation # 23, a procedure he is fond of, a summing up with a virtuoso recapitulative display.He does similar handlings in his Cardew disk on "We Sing For the Future".

There are some very low points I found in this piano music as the "Sonata" written in 1991, which has smatterings of glissandi Liberace like, and a stupid playfulness, that grows musically thin very quickly but is indeed disarming. The Agitato, the last movement begins with a low register uttering of "Taps".
Also the various four parts of "The Road", a work when complete will span some eight hours,all seemed arbitrary to me with the use of the voice to accentuate violent phrasings, and scouring the insides of the piano, with Cage-like tappings of the piano body.This wasn't exciting to say the least, and incredibly self-conscious.And I don't see what agenda is in place to transport the listener here to sustain such length.

Of course as I've mentioned Rzewski's creativity emanates from many places particulary the imagery of the Left, but was formed in his years with MEV the improvisatory ensemble in Rome,in the late Sixties, playing also with self-imposed American exiles, living on Fulbrights and Guggenheims. Rzewski for instance has been known to improvise cadenzas in his performances of Beethoven's "Hammerklavier Sonata", as well as in the early Sixties was the first to include the repertoire of the avant-garde of Stockhausen, Cage,Wolff and Boulez. Rzewski remains a unique example of radicalism in music with an affinity for the causes of the Left,but not so much as Cardew who was more an activist,founding a Marxist Party,nor not so academic bound as Christian Wolff,nor as deeply committed to European intellectual thought and high modernity,technology as Luigi Nono. But his music maintains an accessible directedness,with a high committment to lyricism.
His music also succeeds at times quite well in a dramatic situation as his 50 minute "Antigone-Legend", for Soprano Voice and Piano, or his chamber opera "The Invincible Persian Army"(1984).

Frederic Rzewski The People United Will Never Be Defeated!
Average customer rating:

Sheer power every register in rung in solidarity

Frederic Rzewski The People United Will Never Be Defeated!

Manufacturer: Vanguard Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000023FC
Release Date: 1994-01-04

Tracks:

The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Thema
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 1
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 2
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 3
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 4
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 5
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 6
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 7
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 8
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 9
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 10
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 11
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 12
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 13
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 14
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 15
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 16
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 17
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 18
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 19
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 20
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 21
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 22
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 23
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 24
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 25
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 26
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 27
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 28
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 29
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 30
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 31
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 32
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 33
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 34
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 35
The People United Will Never Be Defeated: Variation 36

Customer Reviews:

Sheer power every register in rung in solidarity.......1999-04-04

This piece is like a monument to a marriage not everyone is pleased with. When you engage a directly political subject you ruffle a lot of feathers. So what, feathers need to be ruffled otherwise art would never exist. Mao-tse tung once said if you want an omelette you need to crack some eggs. Rzewski doesn't quite crack all the eggs he needs to, but he was on the right track. The piece ultimately is a way of introducing political solidarity into the concert hall venue. Unlike Cornelius Cardew who was a more engaged activist than Rzewski will ever be, designed his music to be played at worker functions and at community town hall gatherings. I don't see Ursula Oppens ever playing this in a grimy smoke infested hall somewhere in the north of London. This work works best then as an abstraction, indeed a powerful one that scours the entire twentieth century repertoire for its musical language. The theme written by Sergio Ortega is like a international anthem that sends shivers threw the spines of the IMF or the Trilateral commission. Rzewski's music comes from his own experiences at improvisation. And he has no equal in this. As admirable as Ms Oppens playing is, you need someday to hear Rzewski. He has a ferocious technique that never quits, that can move at fever pitch velocity at any point in the piano and nose-dive into any region to ponder a more serious dimension. Each variation visits the twentieth century. The first a Webern-almost like shifing delicately registers, pulling the spellbinding melody out of itself into a child-like innocence. There are bows to minimalist repetitiveness here as well and Prokovievian motoric,even Boulez of the Second Sonata raises its ugly head.

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