Search - Earle Brown, Mauricio Kagel, Henri Pousseur :: Piano Music of the Darmstadt School, Vol. 2

Great cornocopia of the avant-garde inside the piano

scarecrow | Chicago, Illinois United States | 01/13/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is a wonderful capsule showcase of piano solos of the leading creators of the post war avant-garde. The "Corroboree" by Earle Brown is a seminal work in his oeuvre, it is for multiple pianos,and Schleiermacher utilizes the piano interior to pluck strings gently. The means here was to suggest the titles, primoridial-ness, of dealing with timbre directly without cumbersome theoretical baggage.



The Pousseur pieces simply indicated "1A","1B" has a gentle pointillism something you may find in great abundance in the music of M.Finnissy. Pousseur was not prolific,but he certainly understood timbre and process,as this gem here. His other work for Two Pianos "Mobiles" is also quite interesting.

Mauricio Kagel came to dominate the post-war European avant-garde moving from his native Argentina to Cologne really. He found great green pastures in the theatrical dimension his works engage,always contemplating the performer as not only someone who produces sounds, but "acts". The "Mimetics"here also utilizes the interior of the piano,re-tuned as well, There are some passages that are quite impossible where if the pianist uses his nose along with both hands the tones could then be the given simultaneity.In the opposite direction the "Echo andante" of Lachenmann is an early austere work, quite abstract and severe. His piano music only finds fruitful means when harmonics are used to my ears as his seminal "Serynade". The Stockhausen is an incidental work."