MICHAEL GIELEN (b.1927): Klaverstück in 7 Sätzen "recycling der glocken" for Piano, Prepared Piano, Bells and Tape, STEFAN LITWIN (b.1960): The Bells for Speaker and Piano (David Moss [speaker]), CLAUDE DEBUSSY (1862-1918): La Cathédrale engloutie, MAURICE RAVEL (1875-1937): La vallée des cloches, FRANZ LISZT (1811-1886): Carillon.

Catalogue Number: 11M084
Label: Telos
Reference: TLS 075
Format: CD
Price: $16.98
Description: Gielen's seven pieces, at over half an hour, get the lion's share of this bells-inspired piano works program. According to the composer they reassemble material from an earlier ensemble piece. A variety of techniques are employed to suggest the sounds of bells, over and above the piano's innate ability to do so; actual temple bells, a prepared upright piano with screws inserted between the strings à la Cage and a tape part which introduces material from the end at the beginning and vice versa all contribute to a surreal, stream-of-consciousness soundscape immersing the listener in bell-like sonorities. Litwin's own piece makes a monodrama of Poe's poem - the one Rachmaninov set - curiously distorting the text in highly dramatised and exaggerated sprechstimme, while the piano provides a more literal depiction of the type of bell-sounds described in the poem. Prepared elements and extended techniques are introduced in the piano part as the work progresses toward the ragtime danse macabre of the 'funeral bells' finale. Stefan Litwin (piano).