Arditti Quartet - Mexico: New Music for Strings - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This historic couples George Crumb's earliest work for piano, the Five Pieces for Piano (1962) with his most recent piano cycle, Metamorphoses (2017). Margaret Leng Tan has long been a champion of Crumb's music, and he composed Metamorphoses (Book 1) for her. This recording is of the German premiere at the legendary Donaueschingen Festival in 2017. Crumb's Metamorphoses is a natural descendent of his monumental Makrokosmos I & II piano cycle of the early 1970s. With a nod to Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, each movement of the Metamorphoses is inspired by a famous painting. And, like the Makrokosmos, it requires the pianist to be a virtuoso not only at the keyboard but playing inside the piano and vocalizing as well. Ms. Tan is regarded at the InchDiva of the Toy Piano,Inch and Crumb has also incorporated the toy piano and toy percussion instruments into some movements. Crumb says InchI have always been most fortunate to have had outstanding pianists who were willing to tackle the formidable technical and musical innovations in my scores. And among the very finest of these is Margaret Leng Tan for whom I wrote Metamorphoses (Book l). Margaret's technical prowess and superb artistic sensitivity is a combination that must warm the heart of any composer!Inch The album also includes the early Five Pieces for Piano. All the components of Crumb's mature compositional language are already evident a broad palette of coloristic effects along with an extraordinarily sensitive command of nuance, his unmistakable musical gestures, an inherent sense of drama coupled with a magical suspenseful atmosphere and a battery of interior piano effects demanding that the pianist be somewhat of a harpist and percussionist as well. Album Tracks 1. Metamorphoses, Book I 1. No. 1. Black Prince 00 05 14 2. No. 2. the Goldfish 00 02 53 3. No. 3. Wheatfield with Crows 00 04 5

Album Tracks 1. Faces of Love (Emily Dickinson) I Shall Not Live in Vain - Jake Heggie 2. Eve-Song (Philip Littell) Even - Sylvia McNair 3. Eve-Song (Philip Littell) Listen - Sylvia McNair 4. Eve-Song (Philip Littell) Snake - Sylvia McNair 5. Of Gods and Cats (Gavin Geoffrey Dillard) In the Beginning - Jennifer Larmore 6. Of Gods and Cats (Gavin Geoffrey Dillard) Once Upon a Universe - Jennifer Larmore 7. Paper Wings (Frederica Von Stade) Bedtime Story - Frederica Von Stade 8. Paper Wings (Frederica Von Stade) Paper Wings - Frederica Von Stade 9. Paper Wings (Frederica Von Stade) Mitten Smitten - Frederica Von Stade 10. A Route to the Sky - Frederica Von Stade 11. Natural Selection (Gini Savage) Animal Passion - Jake Heggie 12. Natural Selection (Gini Savage) Alas! Alack! - Jake Heggie 13. Natural Selection (Gini Savage) Joy Alone (Connection) - Jake Heggie 14. Before the Storm (Edna St. Vincent Millay) What Lips My Lips Have Kissed - Jake Heggie 15. The Faces of Love (Emily Dickinson) If You Were Coming in the Fall - Carol Vaness 16. The Faces of Love (Emily Dickinson) As Well As Jesus? - Carol Vaness 17. The Faces of Love (Emily Dickinson) It Makes No Difference Abroad - Carol Vaness 18. Encountertenor (John Hall) Countertenor's Conundrum - Brian Asawa 19. Encountertenor (John Hall) The Trouble with Trebles in Trousers... - Brian Asawa 20. Dixie (Traditional) - Jennifer Larmore 21. Songs to the Moon (Vachel Lindsay) Once More - to Gloriana - Frederica Von Stade 22. Songs to the Moon (Vachel Lindsay) Euclid - Frederica Von Stade 23. Songs to the Moon (Vachel Lindsay) The Haughty Snail King - Frederica Von Stade 24. Songs to the Moon (Vachel Lindsay) What the Gray-Winged Fairy Said - Frederica Von Stade 25. My True Love Hath My Heart (Sir Philip Sidney) - Frederica Von Stade 26. Encore Sop

Album Tracks 1. 1. Con Espressione Metafisica 2. 2. Sturm! 3. 3. Con Astrazione Sesibile 4. 4. Drang 5. 1. Fanax (Metallico) 6. 2. Pus (E-Statico) 7. 3. Fert (Scorrevole) 8. 4. Fans (Luminoso) 9. 5. Gramah (Elettrico) 10. 1. Molto Sensibile 11. 2. Con Leggerezza 12. 3. Scherzando, Ma Ritmicamente Rigoroso 13. 4. Intenso 14. 5. Presto, Di Volo 15. NR. 1 Con Impeto 16. NR. 2 Intensamente 17. NR. 3 Elettrico! 18. Electra Glide (FüR 2 Violinen Und Viola)