American Piano Music Of Our Time, Vol. 2

Pianist Ursula Oppens, long a champion of contemporary piano music, recorded two volumes for Music & Arts in the early '90s. She often concentrated on the relatively Romantic streams of the avant-garde, and several such pieces are represented here. Conlon Nancarrow's two canons are immensely complicated works showing vestiges of his better-known writing for player pianos, with each hand required to play at a different tempo. The result is knotty and quarrelsome, but fascinating to hear unfold. Rzewski's Mayn Yingele, a set of variations on an old Jewish folk song, is more overtly Romantic in the manner of many of the composer's earlier reworkings of folk forms and worker's anthems. The two pieces by Charles Wuorinen and John Harbison are solid and generally enjoyable, though there's a slight academic tinge about them that is somewhat off-putting. Though from a similar generation as Rzewski, they lack his worldliness, giving their compositions a slight ivory tower air, lacking grit. This is not the case with two lovely works by younger composers Tobias Picker and Anthony Davis, dreamy, elegiac songs of great evocative and nostalgic quality that nonetheless sound entirely modern. Oppens plays with clarity and spirit throughout, bringing the same passion to her performance as she did in prior years with recordings such as the world premiere of Rzewski's masterwork, The People United Will Never Be Defeated! Along with its companion first volume, this disc provides a well-chosen representation of a certain aspect of contemporary piano work and gives the interested newcomer a well-placed foot in the door.