Ralph van Raat performing gives only one track for the theme and its 36 variations that vary so greatly from the aggressively abbreviated, to the fractured and dispersed, to dreamy tinkles of beauty casually scattered about like flower petals. Even the piano lid gets slammed.

The fourth of the Four North American Ballads—the Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues…—works up a storm that is totally irresistible before dropping some of that intensity for the lyrical, bluesy beginning of the second part. Van Raat goes far in that overwhelming direction and in some ways further than the composer. But he still remains surprisingly earthbound.

Greatness in art usually transcends politics. Shostakovich’s appeal extends beyond communists; Diego Rivera and Pablo Neruda aren’t only admired by socialists; Leni Riefenstahl has been (quietly) admired and copied, and even the quality of Arno Breker’s work can be acknowledged without raising too many eyebrows, these days. The intended (or unintended) political message takes a distant second place to the artistic quality with which it is conveyed. Certain Frederic Rzewski knew that, and while his own politics then favored the ‘well-meaning’ brand of totalitarianism, he studied Wagner to learn how to achieve maximum narrative effect. Rzewski’s music—“19th century grandeur with 20th century compositional techniques” as Ralph van Raat calls them—deserves to be wholeheartedly embraced.

“The People United Will Never Be Defeated!—36 Variations on ¡El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido!” in any case tells rather innocuously of the universally valid ‘human struggle for change’, in this case the struggle to resist the perfectly undemocratic forces hard at work to unseat the almost-democratic Salvador Allende. The theme for the Variation comes from Sergio Ortega who wrote the anthem of the same name to a pop-tune he picked up at the time. Rzewski’s hour-long treatment for piano takes this tune as its ever-recurring kernel and goes far and wide with it.

Unfortunately Naxos’s new recording with Ralph van Raat performing gives only one track for the theme and its 36 variations that vary so greatly from the aggressively abbreviated, to the fractured and dispersed, to dreamy tinkles of beauty casually scattered about like flower petals. Even the piano lid gets slammed. Given their similar politics, could it be that Rzewki was familiar with Marc Blitzstein’s 1920s Piano Percussion Music that asks the same of the performer?

The fourth of the Four North American Ballads—the Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues (background video here)—really works up a storm that is totally irresistible, before dropping some of that intensity for the lyrical, bluesy beginning of the second part. Van Raat goes far in that overwhelming direction and in some ways further than the composer. But he still remains surprisingly earthbound. Even Marc-André Hamelin, with his more accentuated, machine-like attack and Hyperion’s slightly better recorded piano sound, doesn’t come close to unleashing the fury that the repetition-and-increase can unfold live…like I last heard—with awe—in Severin von Eckardstein’s 2005 recital at the Kennedy Center.

The authentic struggle of Rzewski himself in this music is gripping; the ridiculous ease and devastating precision—almost beyond what the score indicates—with which Hamelin cruises through them breathtaking—in both works. Ralph van Raat falls between the two; closer to Hamelin but slightly heavier and the individumore....

Review By Lynn René Bayley,Fanfare,August 2008



Review By James Manishen,Winnipeg Free Press,August 2008

The title work by left-wing American composer Frederic Rzewski (born in 1938) is a marathon set of variations written in 1975 based on a protest song by Chilean composer Sergio Ortega that became famous after being played by the iconic Chilean pop group Quilapayun.

At almost 63 minutes Rzewski’s work is a monster, throwing everything conceivable at a pianist in virtuoso challenges. The tune itself is gently melancholic, considering its subject, finding its way in varying degrees of cloaking through 36 variations covering a vast array of styles, from wistful blues through tangy modernism with much else in between, yet there’s a remarkable coherence in the many moods and scenes. One could well argue in favour of landmark stature as modern variation pieces go.

Combining classical elements with modern influences and techniques to a highly accessible effect, Rzewski’s masterpiece delivers grandeur as well as whimsy, pathos with humor, and requires the player to execute virtuoso runs across the keyboard. A must-hear for fans of the keyboard and modern American music.