CLASSICAL new release harmonia mundi UK available 11th ...

WER6730-2
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Frederic RZEWSKI
The People United Will Never Be
Defeated
Kai Schumacher (piano)
Rzewski studied with such names as Walter Piston,
Roger Sessions and Randall Thompson. He studied
composition with Milton Babbitt and the music of
Richard Wagner with Oliver Strunk at Princeton
University from 1958-60, where he also studied Greek
literature and philosophy. In addition, he studied
composition privately with Luigi Dallapiccola in Rome
in 1960. As a pianist, he frequently performed with the
flautist Severino Gazzelloni in the 1960s. He then
co-founded with Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum
the improvisational and live electronic ensemble Musica Elettronica Viva, in Rome in 1966 and performed with
it from 1966-71. Since then, he has been active as a pianist, primarily in performances of his own pieces and
music by other contemporary composers, making an appearance at Huddersfield Festival in 2009.
The People United Will Never Be Defeated is based on the Chilean protest song, '¡El pueblo unido jamás será
vencido!', written by Sergio Ortega a few months before Pinochet's military coup in September of 1973.
"One day in June, 1973, three months before the bombing by Pinochet's military coup, I was walking through
the plaza in front of the Palace of Finance in Santiago, Chile, and saw a street singer
shouting, "The people united will never be defeated" - a well known Chilean chant
for social change. I couldn't stop, and continued across the square, but his incessant
chanting followed me and stuck in my mind.
On the following Sunday, after the broadcast of the show "Chile Says No to Civil
War", which I directed for Channel 9, we went with a few artists to eat at my
house outside Santiago. Upon arrival I sat down at my piano and thought about the
experience in the plaza and the events at large. When I reproduced the chant of
the people in my head, the chant that could not be restrained, the entire melody
exploded from me: I saw it complete and played it in its entirety at once. The text
unfurled itself quickly and fell, like falling rocks, upon the melody. In their
enthusiasm some of my guests made suggestions that were too rational for the
situation I was composing in. Out of courtesy I pretended to accept, but arranged myself to leave the text in
its symptomatic landscape." Sergio Ortega, on El Pueble Unido
"when I did record "The people united", I haven´t met Frederic before. I´ve sent him my recording in
February (before I got in contact with Wergo) to make sure, that he will like my interpretation and would
support a release - what he absolutely did. We first met in Den Haag at a concert, where an american pianist
was playing the piece - which was the first time for me to hear "The people united" live, except played by
myself. The second time we´ve met in Cologne in June, where Frederic was invited to a festival. We had the
time to work on the piece for a while, but that was no "teaching" by him in a common sense, but more a
discussion about different emotions when the theme comes at the end again, because for me it´s less a
victorious ending but more a kind of melancholic reminiscence. Our meeting did end in a little private
concert he played for me, with some of his new "Nanosonatas" - which really was a pleasure for me."
Kai Schumacher
Feature in the Daily Telegraph on this recording
harmonia mundi UK- released 11th January 2010