Frederic Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (2008)

Rzewski On Naxos

Frederic Rzewski's "The People United Will Never Be Defeated!" is a rarity in late 20th Century music. The work is a difficult set of 36 variations for solo piano using a variety of compositional and pianistic techniques. It is also a work composed from a distinct and obvious political perspective. Yet, the work has been properly recognized as a masterpiece, one of the most important American compositions for the piano. Rzewski's composition has achieved a wide following and has been recorded by many pianists, including Hamelin, Ursula Oppen, and the composer himself. It is a joy to have this music available on a new budget-priced Naxos CD performed by the Dutch pianist Ralph van Raat who has also prepared the informative liner notes. This CD should introduce many listeners to Rezewski's music.

Rzewski composed "The People United Will Never be Defeated!" in 1975 and the work received its first performance in Washington D.C. at the Kennedy Center in 1976, in celebration of the Bicentennial. Ursula Oppen first performed the piece and it is dedicated to her. This is a large-scale piece consisting of 36 variations on a theme written by a Chilean composer, Sergio Ortega, based upon the political turmoil in his country following the death of Allende. Although the title and the music have an overtly political, left-wing theme, Rzewski has created a work of art which transcends politics. This score is accessible, for all its difficulty, and its themes are universal.

The work is a successor to Beethoven's Diabelli Variations in its length and variety and in the ways in which each composer manages to develop a seemingly simple, unsophisticated tune. The theme consists of thirty-six measures and thirty-six variations are organized in groups of six with the final variation in each group summing up the previous five. The final set of six variations, in turn, sums up the prior five sets. The music is eclectic and draws on both popular forms such as the blues and on difficult regions of modern atonality. There are highly modernistic touches in the score, such as the sudden slamming shut of the cover of the keyboard in variation 11 and the repeated note pattern in variation 24.

The virtuosity and technical difficulty of the piano writing is apparent at an initial hearing. Rzewski's music is full of lengthy glissandos, long sections of repeated notes, long and wild runs, thunderous arpeggios, and much else. The difficulty and passion of the writing mirrors the importance of Rzewski's theme and the work required to reach the goal. Tempos vary as well throughout the variations, and the rhythm ranges from free and improvisatory to strict. The original theme remains recognizable through the many permutations of Rzewski's variations. After the set of free-ranging variations, the return of the main theme offers a moment of reflection, as does the return of the theme at the conclusion of Bach's Goldberg Variations.

This CD also includes a shorter work "The Winsboro Cotton Mill Blues" which juxtaposes the insistent thumping and whirring of the cotton mill against a plaintive, bluesy theme.

This CD is an outstanding way to get to know a great work of American piano music from the late 20th Century.

Robin Friedman