Customer Reviews

Piano Dance: A 20th-Century Portrait

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Listening to this CD is fun. The CD has a diverse selection of contemporary dances for solo piano, ranging from familiar favorites, such as Gollywog's Cakewalk by Debussy, to lesser known and unconventional but charming works, such as del Aguila's Conga. The dances are varied and well-interpreted by Ms. Cheng, who brings poignancy to each one while maintaining throughout the CD a fun and energetic mood.

Ms. Cheng's playing is phenomenal, and I also enjoy her earlier CD of works by John Adams and Terry Riley. Both CD's show off her rich tone and appealing style, but the dance collection is the most entertaining. If you buy this CD, you'll probably find yourself listening to it frequently.

A very good concept. Take a noted pianist, in this case Gloria Cheng, and work with her on a program of 23 short works or short sections of larger works, all of which are one form or another of Dance--and you might come up with something good or possibly just a mixed bag. The Telarc release <Piano Dances, Gloria Cheng: a 20th Century Portrait> (CD-80549) is such a program. The playing is wonderful, the results what you might expect, alas: a mixed bag.

A very definite positive about this program is that almost every selection was new to me. After all, how many of us are familiar with works like Miguel del Aguila's "Conga," Philip Glass's "Modern Love Reel," or Paul Hindemith's "Shimmy"? I mean, really! So there is much Joy of Discovery afforded by this CD; but with all but one piece running under 5 minutes (and that one at 9:26), a certain cloying factor creeps in after a while, and perhaps I should recommend this be played in small sections.

But all in all, what a treasure-trove of little-known pieces.

This is a highly variegated, yet wonderful collection of 20th century piano music. All of the musical selections relate in some way to the world of dance and are generally quite short in length, but otherwise are extremely diverse. Waltzes, tangos, and mazurkas nestle next to folk dances, ragtime, and percussion dances.

Despite their brevity, the pieces on this album deserve to be truly listened to -- not to just be on as background music. Not that all of the music is difficult or esoteric. There's a nice balance between pieces that are very accessible (such as Martinu's "Polka in E major" and Ornstein's "Waltz #7") and pieces that take a while to understand and warm up to (such as Hindemith's "Shimmy" and Norgard's "Tortoise's Tango"). For understanding the more difficult pieces, the liner notes are very helpful.

Well known composers of the 20th century make an appearance on this album (think Bartok, Stravinsky, Ravel), but they are also joined by less familiar names. I particularly enjoyed being exposed for the first time to the music of Federico Mompou and Miguel del Aguila. Mompou's "Cancion y Danza, No. 6" was lush and lovely. Aguila's striking piece entitled "Conga" was fascinating to listen to.

My favorite piece on the album, however, would have to be Stravinsky's "Tango." The sultry feel of the tango is represented perfectly, which surprised me since the piece is for solo piano. I thought I would have missed the bandoneon. Gloria Cheng executes it magnificently.