2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Schvartz can warm -up the coldestly conceived music, December 13, 1999
This review is from: Haydée Schvartz, piano (Audio CD)
Sometimes you buy music for the level of performance only rather than the music. And this is the case here where the music seems to be lots of filler incidental,marginal or just boring. The two short Berio pieces here is an example. Berio had no imagination for the piano, more orchestral and vocal colours, for which few can equal him. Cage's "Perpetual Tango" is simply rhythms given to play based on a Satie tango. And Schvartz nourishes this cold template with life, like putting emotive electrodes to Cage's scribblings. The Scelsi here are powerful pieces conceived as improvisations and later transcribed, but they reflect his interest in Asia, the god Vishnu and the inherent spirtuality. The music is gong-like and clangorous,written in 1953 it was indeed experimental for its time. Scelsi living as a recluse in Rome ignored the Darmstadt tyranny contemporary with this music. The Arvo Part is a wonderfully beautiful, an excursion into simplicity, and evocativness in a few high tones. The subsequent variations seems to fill in emotive spaces that should have been left alone. That is the creative power of Part's music he never overwrites, and knows how to evoke with one breath, one stroke of the pen. The Kagel piece here is a post-minimalist incidental excursion and filler music,Harold Budd was far more advanced in this language,A pity for Kagel is a master at timbre and pure anarchic combustion.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
