Customer Reviews

Works for Solo Piano

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Leon Kirchner was born in 1919. He was a student of Schoenberg. He has written atonally for many years and yet his music has always had the same sort of Romantic impulses as those of his mentor; that is to say, if one didn't know Kirchner's music rarely had tonal centers, one might think this was simply hyperchromatic yet tonal music. Kirchner has also been an esteemed, even revered, teacher at Harvard where he taught, among others, John Adams. This CD is a collection of performances of six of his quintessential piano works played by six distinguished American pianists -- Leon Fleisher, Peter Serkin, Jonathan Biss, Jeremy Denk, Max Levinson and Joel Fan -- and in at least three instances -- those of Serkin, Fan and Biss -- the pianist is the dedicatee of the piece he plays.

The earliest piece is the First Piano Sonata (1948) played by Leon Fleisher. I'm not sure when it was recorded but it appeared initially on a Fleisher album also containing music of Copland, Sessions and Rorem. Whatever its recording date, the sound is fine and the performance even better. This is passionate and engaged music. Peter Serkin included 'Interlude I' (1989) on his sensational album '... in real time' which contained thirteen pieces written for him by seven eminent composers, including Kirchner. It, too, is a passionate and dense work and was followed some thirteen years later (2002) by 'Interlude II', written for Jonathan Biss, the stunningly talented Philadelphia pianist. The second Interlude is a polar opposite of its predecessor in that it is transparent, flowing and with islands of Zenlike serenity. (Interestingly, the piece started out to be for left hand alone, for Leon Fleisher, but the nature of the music apparently led Kirchner to change his plans for it.)

The 'Five Pieces for Piano' (1987) each have titles taken from Dickinson poems and indeed they started out as songs set to her words. When a couple of pianists wondered if Kirchner couldn't set them for piano alone, he did so, incorporating the sung line into the songs' piano accompaniments. They are played magnificently by Levinson. In a brilliant stroke, the Albany booklet includes the texts of Dickinson's poems: The Auctioneer; He scanned it -- staggered --; The Crickets; Much Madness is divinest Sense--; and There came a Wind.

'The Forbidden' (2006) was written for Joel Fan. The latest piece here, written when Kirchner was 87, it is supple, long-limbed, flowing. Sonata No. 2 (2002) is a single thirteen-minute movement, a bracing dry martini of a piece, played with delicacy and grace by Jeremy Denk.

These are, of course, definitive performances of these works, and if you are an admirer of Kirchner's, you'll want this compilation.

Scott Morrison

Leon Kirchner is an American composer whose works deserve far more performances than they receive. His compositions for solo piano blend atonal with tonal ideas into highly polished unique gems. In this well-recorded album there are six of Kirchner's works each played by some of our finest American pianists, each of whom is a proponent of Kirchner's work.

Leon Fleisher performs Kirchner's 1948 Piano Sonata No .1, Peter Serkin performs the Interlude I, 1984, Max Levinson offers the Five Pieces for Piano, 1987, Jonathan Biss plays the Interlude II that dates from 2002, Joel Fan performs The Forbidden, 2006, and the extraordinarily gifted pianist Jeremy Denk gives a dazzling performance of the Piano Sonata No. 2, 2002. Each of these six pianists are at the top of their form and it is such a pleasure to see young pianists commit a large part of their career development to exposing the public to the music of a contemporary composer.

This is not only a recital of exceptional works for the piano by Leon Kirchner, it is also a rare opportunity to sample the technical facility of some of our most important pianist of the day. Grady Harp, March 11