Death of a renowned avantgardist, 83
mainThe American composer Frederic Rzewski, a man of much greater personal influence than musical inspiration, has died at the age of 83.
A student of Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt, he hooked up in 1960 with Luigi Dallapiccola and the Italian experiemtalists. From 1977 he was professor of composition in Liège, Belgium, earning visiting profssorships at other, more worldly insttutions, where he raised two generations of musicians to think differently.
His most celebrated work is a set of 36 charming variations on the Marxist revolutionary chant, ‘The People United Will Never Be Defeated!’, written as a companion piece to Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations. At the 2013 BBC Proms he performed his ‘Cadenza con o senza Beethoven’ within the G-major concerto. It won applause on the night but never caught on.
Not that he greatly minded.
Frederic Rzewski decided to bypass copyright and make the vast majority of his music freely available. Most of it can be downloaded here: https://t.co/edPf47nsAc
— Ian Pace (@ianpacemain) June 26, 2021
American composer Frederic Rzewski died today! This is from his variations “The people united will never be defeated!” pic.twitter.com/8GKycrQSrg
— Musical Notation is Beautiful (@NotationIsGreat) June 26, 2021
A huge personality: I had the privilege of meeting him briefly when he came to give a lecture recital at King’s College London, organised by Annette Morreau;
this for is is the cracker: Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDNy4YuCxdk
Frederic Rzewski as a pianist could play technically very demanding music (cf. the première recording of Stockhausen’s Klavierstück X). He had his best moments as improviser (he was a founding member och the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, and since the late 60’s was a member of the Musica Elettronica Viva). His own downwritten music was not so interesting, I think.
“his own downwritten music was not so interesting , I think “
Uneven – I grant you that. However , the pinnacles of his output are probably here to stay. Quite a few piano pieces seem to have settled into the rep which isn’t bad going for a contemporary composer, and the piano variation set is considerably more elevated than ‘charming’ ( NL’s description). Makes it sound like some salon gem from the 19th century.
I greatly admire the “People United” variations. To my mind, Norman grievously mischaracterizes this massive work by describing it merely as “charming”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lIHEvTPlDo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqvAhBJ99wA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DH7SmUndyw
Lots of recent obits. Have I missed the one on Peter Zinovieff?
I’ve heard Igor Levit play Rzewski’s music live and on recording, and found it compelling.
In 1979 – 1980 I worked in the US government-sponsored Orchestra of New York. It was a chamber orchestra that had a series of concerts in Carnegie Hall in what is now called Weill Hall. The Music Director was Paul Ludwig Dunkel, and every program had a world-premiere by an American composer. One of them was Frederic Rzewski. For the rehearsals he was always dressed in an olive-colored military-style uniform a la Che Guevara. He was greatly offended that the orchestra did not provide him with a limousine to take him to the concert.
Perhaps he thought that since the concert was at Carnegie Hall, he should be afforded Carnegie-style perks …
Ha! You mean like union-scale pay, health care and pension contributions? Yeah, the big C ain’t doin’ that!
Listen to Marc-Andre Hamelin’s towering performance of The People United.. it’s beastly…And, it IS a charming piece, but it’s also ingeniously constructed and very very well written! RIP
Paul Lustig Dunkel, not Ludwig
Is this, by any chance, a thinly-veiled accusation of hypocrisy on Rzeweski’s part or just an opportunistic anti-socialist jab in the ribs?
One wonders, since when had Che a limo at his disposal? Wouldn’t that offend the working class, labouring day and night for the freedom of the people?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO4WvPN8YMo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wczJlxoxITE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0IjfENstXE
He was one of these people who are unhappy with music, and try to overcome its boundaries in the hope of finding something better.
But indeed one should always think differently if confronted by convention. The point is, what is convention and what not. And also, when is something convention.
Thanks for posting this, NL.
I remember playing his ‘Les Moutons de Panurges’ whilst studying on the long Winter Programme at the Banff Centre in Canada in the early ’90s.
This is ignorant on so many levels. Substance aside — “greater personal influence than musical inspiration” — it takes a bigger fool to launch an obit thus. Do you also find a means to insert yourself into birth announcements?
Agreed. Whatever he was in life, there is no reason to publish a passive-aggressive hit piece and attempt to pass it off as any kind of obit.
I enjoyed the Eighth Blackbird recordings of his music and would heartily recommend them to NL if he hasn’t heard them.
My political leanings differ from Rzewski’s, but his music (including, but not limited to, the “People United” variations) deserves a permanent, and prominent, place in the repertory. It’s sad to see him depart the scene.
I love “The People United…” (TPUSNBD?), at least from Marc-Andre Hamelin’s recording of that and some smaller pieces, all quite delightful. It’s a major work that it would be nice to have performed more often (though what is the piano recital market these days?).
Hamelin’s recording is also how I got introduced to People United which I put up there with the Concord Sonata among the finest American Keyboard masterworks. I still consider the Hamelin the benchwork recording though there are several fine accounts now. And I had just listened to the complete Hamelin recording for the zillionth time the day before his passing. What a terrible loss. RIP Prof Rzewski.