Nancarrow: Studies for Player Piano (arranged for chamber orchestra); Tango?; Toccata; Piece No. 2 for Small Orchestra; Trio No. 1; Sarabande and Scherzo

Conlon Nancarrow (Composer), Ingo Metzmacher (Conductor), Ensemble Modern (Orchestra) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Orchestra: Ensemble Modern
• Conductor: Ingo Metzmacher
• Composer: Conlon Nancarrow
• Audio CD (July 13, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: BMG / RCA
• ASIN: B000003F9B
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #419,027 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #99 in Music > Classical > Forms & Genres > Scherzo

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastic testament to a great, long-neglected composer., October 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Nancarrow: Studies for Player Piano (arranged for chamber orchestra); Tango?; Toccata; Piece No. 2 for Small Orchestra; Trio No. 1; Sarabande and Scherzo (Audio CD)

To put it bluntly, this is some of the most original and entertaining 20th century music you will ever hear.

Nancarrow's innovative player piano studies were written from the late 1940s to the early '80s and were intended, among other things, to explore ideas that were beyond the capacity of human performance. As electronic music was in its infancy when he began these studies, the player piano was Nancarrow's only outlet for these experiments. Unfortunately, their rhythmic complexities and furious tempos, as well as the unconventional instrument for which they were created, have limited their exposure. Nancarrow's audience in the US is still woefully small.

This recording by the Ensemble Modern does Nancarrow a remarkable service. They've taken pieces long believed to be too difficult for live performance, and play them with the exhileration of a great jazz band. The arrangements, prepared mostly for brass, woodwinds, piano, harpsicord, and percussion, are bright and beautifully played. This music is constantly inventive and enormously entertaining (Nancarrow is serious music's greatest humorist since Charles Ives). Personally, the performance of "Study No. 7" on this CD is my all-time favorite piece of music, period. Included with the dozen arrangements of player piano pieces are selections that Nancarrow wrote for convential instruments.

If you enjoy the more serious side of Frank Zappa, recent works of John Adams, Stravinsky, Bird, Bartok, Raymond Scott, Carl Stalling, or just want to hear a set of jaw-dropping ensemble performances, you've got to hear this recording.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Something to behold, October 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Nancarrow: Studies for Player Piano (arranged for chamber orchestra); Tango?; Toccata; Piece No. 2 for Small Orchestra; Trio No. 1; Sarabande and Scherzo (Audio CD)

Certainly a departure from his work on the player piano, these are very delicious arrangements of some of his most interesting studies. It was one of my first forays into the world of "serious music" and i have, frankly, never listened to anything, anything, quite the same ever again. I had had no idea music could be like this, like what it sounds like inside my mind. If you are even looking at this page, there is some curiousness; become its slave, and buy this here cd. There is no way you could regret it, even if you do.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful, May 26, 2004

By 

Chet Fakir (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nancarrow: Studies for Player Piano (arranged for chamber orchestra); Tango?; Toccata; Piece No. 2 for Small Orchestra; Trio No. 1; Sarabande and Scherzo (Audio CD)

The previous reviewers said enough about Nancarrows history so that I won't touch on it. I like the orchestrated versions of the player piano pieces much more than the originals, they're more emotional, have greater dynamics, are less robotic (they swing at times) and the variety of timbres adds a lot to the listening experience. What were originally studies are now fully realized pieces. Perhaps not groundbreaking in the way the originals were, but so what. The beauty of Nancarrows' melodic and sometimes humorous music is really brought out by the orchestration. Very nice.