George Crumb - Makrokosmos Vols. 1 & 2

George CRUMB (1929-2022)

Makrokosmos Volumes 1 & 2

Stephanos Thomopoulos (Piano)

Recorded at the Auditorium Rainier III de Monaco, Salle Yakov Kreizberg, 

December 8-9, 2017

[…]Stéphanos Thomopoulos makes a singular and very convincing voice heard by his constant clarity in plasticity. The interpreter flatters the modernity of the writing, which emancipates itself from the  string piano  of Henry Cowell as from the  prepared piano  of John Cage, looks by the title to the miniatures ( Mikrokosmos ) of Bartók and defers far from any dogmatism to the signs of the Zodiac, the pagan gods, the Devil and the Cross. Thomopoulos's amplified piano admirably incorporates the theory of objects summoned by Crumb - the chain of  Primeval Sounds , the glasses of  Ghost-Nocturne , the metal brush of  Cosmic Wind ... And the artist convincingly gives voice (clear, always) roaring ( The Phantom Gondolier ) or whispering ( The Abyss of Time ), when he is not whistling with remarkable accuracy. […]" 

( Diapason , September 2018 / Benoît Fauchet)

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Makrokosmos is a series of four volumes of pieces for piano by American composer George Crumb. The name alludes to Mikrokosmos, a set of piano pieces by Béla Bartók, one of Crumb's favorite 20th-century composers. The first volume of the set was composed in 1972, while the last was completed in early 1979; the first performance of all four volumes in sequence was given by Yvar Mikhashoff, Aki Takahashi, Stephen Manes, Freida Manes, Jan Williams and Lynn Harbold, in Buffalo, New York, on 12 June 1980.

Volume I

Makrokosmos, Volume I was composed in 1972 for pianist and friend David Burge (who previously commissioned and premiered Crumb's Five Pieces for Piano (1962)). The collection is subtitled Twelve Fantasy-Pieces after the Zodiac and is scored for amplified piano. Its contents are as follows:

Part 1:

Primeval Sounds (Genesis I) (Cancer)

Proteus (Pisces)

Pastorale (from the Kingdom of Atlantis, ca. 10,000 B.C.) (Taurus)

Crucifixus [SYMBOL] (Capricorn)

Part 2:

The Phantom Gondolier (Scorpio)

Night-Spell I (Sagittarius)

Music of Shadows (for Aeolian Harp) (Libra)

The Magic Circle of Infinity (Moto Perpetuo) [SYMBOL] (Leo)

Part 3:

The Abyss of Time (Virgo)

Spring-Fire (Aries)

Dream Images (Love-Death Music) (Gemini)

Spiral Galaxy [SYMBOL] (Aquarius)

The last piece of each part is notated in such a way that the score forms an image: a cross (piece 4), a circle (piece 8), and a spiral (piece 12). Burge premiered Volume I at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, on 8 February 1973.

Volume II

The second volume of Makrokosmos was completed in 1973. It largely follows the organizational scheme of the first volume, bears the same subtitle (i.e. Twelve Fantasy-Pieces after the Zodiac) and is also scored for amplified piano. Crumb has stated that the two volumes form a sequence of 24 fantasy-pieces. Volume II comprises the following works:

Part 1:

Morning Music (Genesis II) (Cancer)

The Mystic Chord (Sagittarius)

Rain-Death Variations (Pisces)

Twin Suns (Doppelgänger aus der Ewigkeit) [SYMBOL] (Gemini)

Part 2:

Ghost-Nocturne: for the Druids of Stonehenge (Night-Spell II) (Virgo)

Gargoyles (Taurus)

Tora! Tora! Tora! (Cadenza Apocalittica) (Scorpio)

A Prophecy of Nostradamus [SYMBOL] (Aries)

Part 3:

Cosmic wind (Libra)

Voices from "Corona Borealis" (Aquarius)

Litany of the Galactic Bells (Leo)

Agnus Dei [SYMBOL] (Capricorn)

Similarly to Volume I, the last piece of each part is notated so that the score forms an image: two circles (piece 4), a cowrie-like shape (piece 8), and the peace sign (piece 12). The collection was premiered by Robert Miller at the Alice Tully Hall, New York City, on 12 November 1974.

from Wikipedia