Piano Factory

Piano Factory 20.

This portrait disc reveals a consistency across several decades, a witty composer who admired Prokofiev and Classical forms.

Piano Factory 20.

This portrait disc reveals a consistency across several decades, a witty composer who admired Prokofiev and Classical forms.

Piano Factory 19.

Folks expecting a metronome or brash chords will be surprised with Levingston’s limpid Glass recital.

Piano Factory 19.

Folks expecting a metronome or brash chords will be surprised with Levingston’s limpid Glass recital.

Piano Factory 18.

If you like your Bach straight up, then Chan’s minimalist constellations will not amuse. Chan doesn’t provide the familiar melody, but instead organizes or jumbles the chorale’s pitch materials into chowder, deeply obscuring Bach’s poignant original.

Piano Factory 18.

If you like your Bach straight up, then Chan’s minimalist constellations will not amuse. Chan doesn’t provide the familiar melody, but instead organizes or jumbles the chorale’s pitch materials into chowder, deeply obscuring Bach’s poignant original.

Piano Factory 17.

Craven provides only pitches and permits repetitions, octave displacement, variable dynamics, etc.

Piano Factory 17.

Craven provides only pitches and permits repetitions, octave displacement, variable dynamics, etc.

Piano Factory 16. / (Dis)Arrangements 9: Liszt and Wagner

Liszt’s last pieces reflect little interest in pyrotechnics or showy glamour. They are curious about harmony and the spiritual world; some touch on historical subjects, but most all are reflective, even world-weary.

Piano Factory 16. / (Dis)Arrangements 9: Liszt and Wagner

Liszt’s last pieces reflect little interest in pyrotechnics or showy glamour. They are curious about harmony and the spiritual world; some touch on historical subjects, but most all are reflective, even world-weary.

Piano Factory 15: Micro and Macro

Here are nine renditions of ten Holt’s most famous opus. Built from multi-measure cells which can be repeated ad lib, this may be the longest work constructed on an unbroken stream of quintuplets. It is also a potent dose of B-flat minor.

Piano Factory 15: Micro and Macro

Here are nine renditions of ten Holt’s most famous opus. Built from multi-measure cells which can be repeated ad lib, this may be the longest work constructed on an unbroken stream of quintuplets. It is also a potent dose of B-flat minor.

(Dis)Arrangements 6. / Piano Factory 14.

Bach and Scarlatti on piano are intrinsically arrangements, music relocated to an instrument unanticipated by their composers. Some 19th and 20th-century composer-pianists found Bach and Scarlatti too spindly for the ivories. They added notes and fleshed out chords, and took other liberties such as composing new voices or adjusting harmonies.

(Dis)Arrangements 6. / Piano Factory 14.

Bach and Scarlatti on piano are intrinsically arrangements, music relocated to an instrument unanticipated by their composers. Some 19th and 20th-century composer-pianists found Bach and Scarlatti too spindly for the ivories. They added notes and fleshed out chords, and took other liberties such as composing new voices or adjusting harmonies.

Piano Factory 13.

Manhkopf’s vigorous attacks remind that the piano does not sustain. Indeed this conceit sparks Rhizom, a Glenn Gould homage, in which multiple layers of material intersect and interfere.

Piano Factory 13.

Manhkopf’s vigorous attacks remind that the piano does not sustain. Indeed this conceit sparks Rhizom, a Glenn Gould homage, in which multiple layers of material intersect and interfere.

Atopos Survey 1. / Italian Vacation 11. / Piano Factory 12.

Although Atopos has been around for over a decade, I’ve only just discovered them. The emphasis is of course Italian, the sensibility suggesting various late-20th century Italians taking cues from European (Darmstadt) and American (Cage, Feldman, et al.) trends.

Atopos Survey 1. / Italian Vacation 11. / Piano Factory 12.

Although Atopos has been around for over a decade, I’ve only just discovered them. The emphasis is of course Italian, the sensibility suggesting various late-20th century Italians taking cues from European (Darmstadt) and American (Cage, Feldman, et al.) trends.

Piano Factory 11.

Finnissy’s huge and nigh impenetrable opus suggests that music may comment only upon itself.

Piano Factory 11.

Finnissy’s huge and nigh impenetrable opus suggests that music may comment only upon itself.

Piano Factory 10.

Alongside Zagny’s gently wandering preludes (there are 12 of them) we hear a gentle strumming much like a radiator in the room next door, altogether describing a fragile interior scene.

Piano Factory 10.

Alongside Zagny’s gently wandering preludes (there are 12 of them) we hear a gentle strumming much like a radiator in the room next door, altogether describing a fragile interior scene.

Piano Factory 9.

Shepherding the work’s first if not best-documented performance, Cage took Satie’s ludicrous directions seriously and stabled a team of pianists to crank out Vexations’ 840 required repetitions.

Piano Factory 9.

Shepherding the work’s first if not best-documented performance, Cage took Satie’s ludicrous directions seriously and stabled a team of pianists to crank out Vexations’ 840 required repetitions.