The piano

[Bryn]

Indeed and very fine it is too (I would have posted about it here at the time I received it in the post, but my posting privileges at the time were restricted...)

And one more (recent) work than Nicolas Hodges' survey on Neos. As to the relative merits and demerits of the recorded performances . . .

[Mandryka]

And for that matter Howard Riley, Alex Hawkins and Veryan Weston from the UK, and then Fred van Hove, Eve Risser, Marilyn Crispell, Irene Schweizer, Alex von Schlippenbach, Cecil Taylor, Craig Taborn, Borah Bergman and so on and so on, all of whose work is closer to my heart than any contemporary composer of notes for the piano.

Just discovered Tract!

[kernelbogey]

I've enjoyed hearing on TTN an Erard from the 1860s - I can't remember the exact date, or the pianist atm.

[Mandryka]

"English Country Tunes", surely? "Dances" tends to undermine the pun, slightly.

Tunes, indeed. Do you know if Finnissy wrote anything about his motivations? I’m guessing that there are political thoughts in there . . .

Without wishing to offend anyone, I so much prefer Finnissy’s own recordings of his music to Ian Pace’s - but it could be a question of sound (I like Ian Pace in other things - Dusapin for example, and indeed, Tract!) Finnissy’s piano music must be hard to record because of the dynamic range.

I know that Mark Knoop has started to perform History of Photography, maybe he’ll record it.

[Mandryka]

Mark R Taylor (b 1961), who has a recent CD out on Another Timbre, is IMO writing some of the most original and powerful piano music of the present time.

I managed to stumble across just the first page of your review online, and I agree very much about this music’s expressiveness, melancholy music. What he does, the processes and the simplicity, makes me think of some of Christopher Fox’s piano music, but Mark R Taylor is an a different world expressively. Thanks for making me aware of him.

[Richard Barrett]

Without wishing to offend anyone, I so much prefer Finnissy’s own recordings of his music

I would have to agree. I don't think many people have been able to match the enormous range between extreme delicacy and violence that characterises Michael's own performances of his piano music, even if they have other qualities to recommend them. I've seen him play ECT quite a few times, several as pageturner, and these were all important and formative experiences for me. Which is not to detract from the way his piano music is interpreted by Ian Pace or Jonathan Powell or Nic Hodges and others.

[Richard Barrett]

I know that Mark Knoop has started to perform History of Photography, maybe he’ll record it.

A complete recording does exist (I know because I have it!) but I'm not sure whether it was ever intended for commercial release.

[Bryn]

Pupil plays one of his teacher's sonatas.

[Mandryka]

I would have to agree. I don't think many people have been able to match the enormous range between extreme delicacy and violence that characterises Michael's own performances of his piano music, even if they have other qualities to recommend them. I've seen him play ECT quite a few times, several as pageturner, and these were all important and formative experiences for me. Which is not to detract from the way his piano music is interpreted by Ian Pace or Jonathan Powell or Nic Hodges and others.

I’ve only ever seen him as page turner - in Aimard’s Barbican concert of Stockhausen Klavierstucke (which was an unforgettable concert - hope he releases them.)

[Richard Barrett]

I’ve only ever seen him as page turner

If you're interested, there's a recording of Tract by him on my Soundcloud page.

[Bella Kemp]

Patrick Ozzard-Low's second piano sonata is quite good.

Thank you for the suggestion, Joseph. An unknown composer to me, but now I have just listened to this work with much pleasure.

[Joseph K]

Thank you for the suggestion, Joseph. An unknown composer to me, but now I have just listened to this work with much pleasure.

You're welcome, Bella - although it was Richard Barrett who introduced me to the work and composer...

[Mandryka]

If you're interested, there's a recording of Tract by him on my Soundcloud page.

Got the recording now, thanks. In fact when I said I’d only ever seen him as page turner I was referring to Michael Finnissy - I’ve seen Mark Knoop play a few times - Crane, Feldman, Cage.

21st century piano music... that's an interesting thought. I agree about Stockhausen of course, and about Finnissy too although I'm not very well up on the latter's post-2000 piano music and what I do know doesn't excite me as much as his spikier and less allusive piano music from earlier on. I would mention also Sciarrino, although he's written hardly anything for piano since 2000. Mark R Taylor (b 1961), who has a recent CD out on Another Timbre, is IMO writing some of the most original and powerful piano music of the present time.

I wonder if there’s some sort of connection between Mark R Taylor’s music and Walter Zimmermann’s. Both paired down, melodic, modal etc. I’ve been enjoying Ian Pace’s recording of Zimmermann’s Beginner’s Mind, and I noticed that there’s a lot of Schubert references.

[kernelbogey]

Hearing a piano roll of Busoni playing this morning on TTN made me wonder if anyone here knows much about what they demonstrate of changing performance styles.

[Richard Barrett]

I wonder if there’s some sort of connection between Mark R Taylor’s music and Walter Zimmermann’s.

Mark's harmonic vocabulary is much more dense and complex than Walter's (and not really modal), and his expressive world much darker. I wouldn't have made that connection myself, except for the pared-down quality, although by no means all of Walter's music could be so described - Wüstenwanderung is almost the opposite of Beginner's Mind in that regard.