This collection embraces some of the most craggy, uncompromising, and frankly charmless American piano music from the 20th century’s first half, played with concentrated authority by Steffen Schleiermacher, an uncompromising and charmless pianist if ever there were one! His granite-tinged renditions of Ruth Crawford’s Preludes, for example, relate to Jenny Lin’s leaner, more aggressive interpretations much as Klemperer’s Beethoven relates to Szell’s, especially in slower, more foreboding pieces like the Sixth (marked Andante Mystico). He rightly builds Dane Rudhyar’s four-movement Tetragram No. 8 and the Ruggles compositions from the bottom up, projecting the bass lines and thick chords with a rich, weighty sonority that suggests an orchestra rather than a piano, as opposed to Donald Berman’s more incisive Ruggles performances on New World.
Schleiermacher proves less convincing with Henry Cowell. Although the pianist has no trouble grasping Cowell’s armfuls of tone clusters, he often loses sight of the music’s melodic grounding. In The Harp of Life, for example, the clusters wind up overpowering the main tune as the piece builds to its climax. By contrast, Sorrel Hays’ classic 1977 Finnadar recording (reissued on CD by TownHall) maintains a clearer melody/accompaniment perspective and a truer sense of line throughout, abetted by a faster basic tempo. The roomy sonics suit this repertoire, and Carol Oja’s booklet notes are first-rate. [7/29/2005]
