Meredith Monk: Piano Songs

Beneath the seeming 'minimalist' simplicity of her forms lies a wealth of detail, nuance and gesture...Brubaker and Oppens's scrupulous austerity brings out the music's Satie-like undertones...unquestionably... — Gramophone Magazine, September 2014 More…

Release Date: 31st Mar 2014
Catalogue No: 4810712
Label: ECM
Series: New Series
Length: 47 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Monk, M: Obsolete Objects

Work length1:59

$1.10

$1.40

Bruce Brubaker (piano), Ursula Oppens (piano)
Recorded: 2012-04-06
Recording Venue: Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston

Monk, M: Ellis Island

Work length3:02

$1.10

$1.40

Bruce Brubaker (piano), Ursula Oppens (piano)
Recorded: 2012-04-06
Recording Venue: Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston

Monk, M: Folkdance

Work length4:03

$1.10

$1.40

Bruce Brubaker (piano), Ursula Oppens (piano)
Recorded: 2012-04-06
Recording Venue: Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston

Monk, M: Urban march (shadow)

Work length3:08

$1.10

$1.40

Bruce Brubaker (piano), Ursula Oppens (piano)
Recorded: 2012-04-06
Recording Venue: Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston

Monk, M: Tower

Work length1:37

$1.10

$1.40

Bruce Brubaker (piano), Ursula Oppens (piano)
Recorded: 2012-04-06
Recording Venue: Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston

Monk, M: Paris

Work length3:11

$1.10

$1.40

Ursula Oppens (piano)
Recorded: 2012-04-06
Recording Venue: Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston

Monk, M: Railroad (Travel Song)

Work length2:15

$1.10

$1.40

Bruce Brubaker (piano)
Recorded: 2012-04-06
Recording Venue: Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston

Monk, M: Parlour Games

Work length7:37

$1.10

$1.40

Bruce Brubaker (piano), Ursula Oppens (piano)
Recorded: 2012-04-06
Recording Venue: Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston

Monk, M: St Petersburg Waltz

Work length7:04

$1.10

$1.40

Ursula Oppens (piano)
Recorded: 2012-04-06
Recording Venue: Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston

Monk, M: Window In 7's

Work length2:46

$1.10

$1.40

Bruce Brubaker (piano)
Recorded: 2012-04-06
Recording Venue: Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston

Monk, M: totentanz

Work length3:07

$1.10

$1.40

Bruce Brubaker (piano), Ursula Oppens (piano)
Recorded: 2012-04-06
Recording Venue: Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston

Monk, M: Phantom Waltz

Work length7:14

$1.10

$1.40

Bruce Brubaker (piano), Ursula Oppens (piano)
Recorded: 2012-04-06
Recording Venue: Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston

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Celebrating Meredith Monk as composer, these Piano Songs present a world at once playful and earnest. Written or derived from work composed between 1971 and 2006, the pieces inhabit Monk’s unique universe, as played by two of new music’s most distinguished interpreters, American pianists Ursula Oppens and Bruce Brubaker.

These pieces are ‘songs’ because they have strong roots in Monk’s pieces for voice, and because they are direct, specific, and imagistic. Meredith Monk on composing for two pianos: “I delved into different relationships and possibilities between them; material passed back and forth, dialogues, interlocking phrases, shifts of figure and ground. In some pieces, I emphasized the individuality of each piano, writing for one player as the ‘singer’, the other as the ‘accompaniment’; in other pieces I wanted the two pianos to make one large sound.”

She continues: “Directness, purity, asymmetry, and above all transparency have always been important to me. The surface of the music is seemingly simple but the intricacy of detail and the combination of restraint and expressivity challenge the performer. Every gesture is exposed and clear.”

Always drawn to 20th century music, particularly Mompou, Satie and Bartók, Meredith Monk began writing short piano studies in high school and college. After many years of concentrating on composing music for unaccompanied voice and then voice and organ, she went back to the piano with ‘Paris’ in 1972. Thereafter, she began writing short piano pieces, each a world with its own topography, texture and mood. Four solo pieces are included on this album but the majority, including ‘Ellis Island’, are for two pianos.

Reviews

September 2014

Beneath the seeming 'minimalist' simplicity of her forms lies a wealth of detail, nuance and gesture...Brubaker and Oppens's scrupulous austerity brings out the music's Satie-like undertones...unquestionably satisfy[ing] the composer's desire to fuse expressivity and restraint.

6th June 2014

Ursula Oppens and Bruce Brubaker are ideal partners in these pieces...The recording of Piano Songs was very much done in the spirit of collaboration, with the composer in the studio during the sessions. With such an excellent recording and a spirit of both discipline and spontaneity in every piece, this is the kind of piano disc which we come across but rarely.

Meredith Monk: Piano Songs

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