Previously released by the Musical Heritage Society in 1991, this 2005 Naxos reissue is heartily recommended for its remarkable variety; and the outstanding new music ensemble Continuum should be commended for perpetuating
Conlon Nancarrow's fascinating legacy. Known to many listeners as an eccentric, experimental composer for the player piano, and long unknown for his other instrumental works,
Nancarrow is fairly portrayed in a program that reflects his range more fully. The works for player piano are represented here by the outrageously rapid-fire Toccata for violin and player piano (1943), performed by violinist Mia Wu, and some two-hand and four-hand piano arrangements of other mechanical piano studies, brilliantly played by Continuum directors Cheryl Seltzer and Joel Sachs. But the Piece No. 1 for small orchestra (1943); the Trio Movement for clarinet, bassoon and piano (1942); the String Quartet No. 1 (1945); and the Piece No. 2 (1986) offset them, and are in their own quirky ways as intriguing and amusing.
Nancarrow's games with ratios, tricky cross-rhythms, and angular counterpoint are still in evidence in these compositions, but the presence of live performers brings another dimension to the music that makes it frolic with chaotic jubilation, very much in the spirit of
Charles Ives. The reproduction of these 1989 performances is terrific.