By Joe McLellan
Classical Music Critic Emeritus of The Washington Post
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fred (Cedille CD)

Composer Frederic Rzewski, whose music fills this delightful disc, admits that while composing "I never know what I'm doing," but he finds that "a good sign because it means at least I'm not doing the same thing." He is one of the most interesting and listener- friendly composers who have come out of the minimalist movement, and evidently he does not repeat himself from one work to another, though his works often use repetition as a structural principle. In this disc, he has found ideal interpreters in the brilliant group eighth blackbird, six virtuoso players attuned to new ideas. The music includes the delightful Pocket Symphony, the experimental Les Moutons de Panurge, and the harrowing, obsessive Coming Together, based on a letter by a prisoner who died in the Attica riot.

Copyright © 2005, Red Ludwig