Here’s a collection of piano pieces that evokes dances of many ways, shapes, forms, styles, and tempos. Gloria Cheng draws upon an international array of composers whose careers span the 20th century, and bookends her 23 selections with the youngest-born names. No program of short pieces can possibly work without a well-considered running order, and Cheng’s gifts in this respect result in intriguing juxtapositions. William Albright’s demented ragtime contrivance Sleepwalkers Shuffle, for example, bleeds into Debussy’s Golliwog’s Cakewalk. The mosaic-like minimalism of Ligeti’s Hungarian Rock (originally for harpsichord, arranged here for acoustic and synthesized pianos) seems to follow naturally into the earthier swing of Bartók’s Romanian Dance Op. 8a No. 1. There’s a set of atypical thinking men’s tangos from Stravinsky, Barber, and Per Norgard, and one extended work, Conga, that should catapult composer Miguel del Aguila into the limelight.
I get a sense that Cheng worked out most of these pieces at the piano before she tested them on her dancing feet. This is admittedly more evident in more familiar works. She rounds off Debussy and Stravinsky’s brash edges to a fault, while delivering Philip Glass’ cheeky, two-chord Modern Love Waltz on a languorous, overpedaled platter. Conversely, Leo Orenstein’s Ravel-like Waltz No. 7 could use some repose and reflection. But the gentle, wistful harmonies of Mompou’s Canción y Danza No. 6 are delicately voiced and drawn out. All told, this is a stimulating, well-put-together program that will provide complacent pianophiles with plenty of food for thought.
