WOLFGANG RIHM (b.1952): Schrift-Um-Schrift for 2 Pianos and 2 Percussionists, BÉLA BARTÓK (1881-1945): Sonata for 2 Pianos and Percussion.

Catalogue Number: 11M092
Label: Neos
Reference: 11032
Format: CD
Price: $19.98
Description: Schrift-Um-Schrift is an example of Rihm's sub-genre of 'palimpsest' compositions - works in which aspects of the potential of an earlier composition are 'over-written' and explored again in a new piece. (This accounts for the composition date given - 1993/2007.) The work begins with discrete, detached events, somewhat pointillistic and fragmented, with much emphasis on the resonances and vibrations available to the ensemble. As the half-hour work progresses, these flow together into a complex sequence of overlapping textures which seems to evolve according to some natural process. The emergence of occasional frankly tonal events, like found objects, and the inventively changing and shifting, shimmering resonant textures, maintain a feeling of discovery, the unexpected, and a continuous, if somewhat chaotic, journey. GrauSchumacher Piano Duo, Franz Schindlbeck & Jan Schlichte (percussion). SACD hybrid.