American Ultramodernists 1920-1950 is a collection of piano pieces by early American modernist composers that may be loosely classified under this term as performed by Steffen Schleiermacher for the MDG Scene imprint. Schleiermacher has imbibed at this particular spring before in some of his Hat Art recordings, but it appears that he has not previously recorded any of these specific pieces. There is only one recording premiere on American Ultramodernists 1920-1950, that being of Henry Cowell's tiny piano piece Hommage à Rudyhar, a shred of manuscript from the early '20s not even a full minute long. Whereas some of his previous recordings of this kind of music emphasizes his power and force at the keyboard, Schleiermacher here wisely approaches all of the material with restraint, discovering levels of sensitivity in the music that belie its "ultramodern" classification.
To ears well acquainted with the products of the Second Vienna School, piano works of Rudyhar, Crawford Seeger, and Ruggles may sound superficially similar to the music of the 12-note trinity. However, they have nothing in common in terms of structural features or inspiration, even though performers well schooled in European Contemporary Music sometimes fall back on the Viennese tradition in interpreting works of the Americans. Here, Ruth Crawford Seeger's Nine Preludes are filtered through the example of Alban Berg's early piano music. It is not a bad idea, as Crawford Seeger admired Berg and visited him once in Berlin. Yet Schleiermacher's tempos are a tad slow -- pianist Jenny Lin got through the whole set of nine in six minutes less on her excellent BIS disc The World of Ruth Crawford Seeger. Schleiermacher's interpretation of Ruggles' oft-recorded Evocations are likewise on the slow side. However, in some cases this approach works well; Schleiermacher's Cowell The Snows of Fujiyama is fabulous, taken at a tempo slower than that of the composer.
American Ultramodernists 1920-1950 features excellent and informative liner notes written by Carol J. Oja, author of Making Music Modern, a comprehensive study on this period and its musicians. All of the pieces save Hommage à Rudyhar have appeared elsewhere, and in a few instances the alternate options are preferable. Nevertheless, for those who require an introduction to this style of music and do not desire to seek out all of the individual recordings, this is an excellent, if somewhat expensive, option.
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