Record of the Year

[CallMePaul]

This was announced on R3 news this morning - Igor Levitt playing Bach's Goldberg Variations, Beethoven's Diabelli Vartiations and Rzecki's variatioins on The People United Will Never Be Divided!.

A bit of a dark horse this, IMO. I expected the Pappano Aida to win this and my own favourite would have been Rachel Podger playing biber's Rosary Sonatas. As I have just bought Mahan Esfahani's Goldberg Variations, have both Brendel and Gary Cooper playing the Beethoven it is unlikely that I will be buying the Record of the Year. I will need a lot of persuasion that the Rzecki is a work of interest or importance.

I didn't catch all the awards but did note that R3 was a winner! Congratulations to all winners.

[Alison]

I have to say I do find the Rzewski of great interest and can't help feeling its inclusion has given this disc a profile it might not otherwise have enjoyed.

[Bryn]

This was announced on R3 news this morning - Igor Levitt playing Bach's Goldberg Variations, Beethoven's Diabelli Vartiations and Rzecki's variatioins on The People United Will Never Be Divided[sic]!.

A bit of a dark horse this, IMO. I expected the Pappano Aida to win this and my own favourite would have been Rachel Podger playing biber's Rosary Sonatas. As I have just bought Mahan Esfahani's Goldberg Variations, have both Brendel and Gary Cooper playing the Beethoven it is unlikely that I will be buying the Record of the Year. I will need a lot of persuasion that the Rzecki[sic] is a work of interest or importance.

I didn't catch all the awards but did note that R3 was a winner! Congratulations to all winners.

That's quite an achievement. Both the composer's name and the title of the composition given incorrectly.

The composer is Frederic Rzewski and the variations are titled The People United will Never be Defeated!. to my mind, the work's not really up there with the Goldbergs or Diabellis but the range of 20th Century compositional Fred used in its compositions is very effective. I was quite bowled over by the performance Rzewski himself gave at the Almeida Festival in 1983, and have since accumulated four recordings of the work made by the composer and several others by pianists who have taken it to their hearts. Recently, in addition to this Levit recording I was please to find that its dedicatee, Ursula Oppens, has re-recorded it, this time taking up the improvised cadenza option. As far as I am concerned this is a well deserved award. All three sets of variations are given highly involved renditions.

[CallMePaul]

I have just caught up again with this thread. I apologise for the errors, but I was writing the first item from memory and so made mistakes in an effort to get this news on the boards ASAP after I heard it. At the time I had never heard a note of Rzewski's music and the composer was just a name to me. I have since heard, via the Gramophone website, the opening of the Rzewski. I have to admit that the title of the piece has put me off, although after my very limited experience of it and its composer, I agree with Alison that it has musical interest.

[Bryn]

The Variations were commissioned for the U.S Bicentennial celebrations. Fred considered the theme highly apposite to the occasion. The variations fall into six mini-cycles of five using different compositional styles plus a sixth combining aspects of those five. The final variation seeks to combine all that has gone before, and can be preceded by an improvised cadenza.