William Bolcom

Primer and Other Duets for One Piano/ Four Hands William Bolcom

(E. B. Marks). A revival of interest in four-hand music seems long overdue! Primer reviews the ensemble in a series of short studies, involving unusual hand displacement, rhythmic counterpoint, and the like. "Primer," the first study, is choreographic in nature; "Whirligig," a pitting together of musical wheels; "Wild Horses," a study in coordination; "Mr. S's Magic Dice," interlocking of hands between players. "A Gray Day in Venice" begins a series of stylistic adventures, here an evocation of a Mendelssohnian gondola, where "Action-painting" invokes the carefully scattered drips in Jackson Pollock. "La Sarabande de l'Infini" is one of two wreaths laid at the tombs of two French masters of piano music for four hands, here Debussy; and for a finale "Hommage a Satie, le Divo de l'Empire," recalling the Velvet Gentleman's cabaret career. Also includes the first publications of Chabrieriana a compact tribute to the Romantic French composer, Emmanuel Chabrier, and Sentimental Waltz, a dedicatory piece to a friend. The previously-published Dedicace is also included.