Editor Reviews:

Album Description:
On fred, the celebrated contemporary music sextet performs sparkling works showcasing the broader chromatic palette of an American master best-known for his piano music.

The program is imbued with the composer's eccentric spirit, improvisational surprises, and social conscience: eighth blackbird's propulsive new arrangement of Rzewski's dramatic Coming Together, in which music accompanies the text of a letter by an inmate killed in the Attica prison uprising of 1971; the energetically playful "musical game" Les Moutons de Panurge; and the world premiere recording of Rzewski's inventive Pocket Symphony, written specially for eighth blackbird.

Rating : - A fantastic portrait of Rzewski
Eighth Blackbird has really put together a great project in their album "Fred." Rzewski's catalogue of work is so vastly diverse. You have his atonal monster piano piece "The People United Will Never Be Defeated," is American inspired piano solos, and his more minimalist projects as well. In this album, Eighth Blackbird has really put together a great portrait of Rzewski's work on one CD.

In Pocket Symphony, Eighth Blackbird exposes the audience to Rzewski's atonal side. The piece is extremely well performed and all of the instrumentalists show their virtuosity on this piece. It's a truly profound performance.

The other side of the coin is that Eighth Blackbird shows how well they work together as an ensemble with "Les Moutons de Panurge" and "Coming Together." The score for "Les Moutons de Panurge" is simply a 65 note melody in which the performers play the first note, then the first and second, then they add the third and continue on adding one note at a time until they reach the ultimate 65th note. Once they reach the 65th note, they start subtracting notes from the beginning of the melody. It's almost impossible for a large ensemble to stay together in this task, so Rzewski says, if you get lost stay lost. The result is contrapuntal Nirvana.

Coming Together is equally intriguing. There is a bass vamp and other instruments that support it while a narrator reads text from a war prisoner's letter to a friend. The piece is absolutely haunting and the narration on this CD is outright stunning. This is without question the best recording of this work available. Period. No Questions asked.

Rzewski is one of the most creative composers the 20th century has brought forth. Any lover of new music owes it to themself to own this record.