# Frederic Rzewski

Frederic Anthony Rzewski (/ˈʒɛfski/ ZHEF-skee; April 13, 1938 – June 26, 2021) was an American composer and pianist, considered to be one of the most important American composer-pianists of his time. From 1977 up to his eventual death, he lived mainly in Belgium. His major compositions, which often incorporate social and political themes, include the minimalist Coming Together and the variation set The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, which has been called "a modern classic".

## Early life and education

Rzewski was born on April 13, 1938, in Westfield, Massachusetts, to parents of Polish and Jewish descent, and raised Catholic. He began playing piano at age 5 and attended Phillips Academy, Harvard, and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston, and Milton Babbitt. In 1960, he went to Italy on a Fulbright grant, a trip which was formative in his future musical development. In addition to studying with Luigi Dallapiccola in Florence on a Fulbright scholarship he began a career as a performer of new piano music, often with an improvisatory element.

## Career

In 1966, Rzewski co-founded Musica Elettronica Viva with Alvin Curran and Richard Teitelbaum in Rome. Musica Elettronica Viva conceived music as a collective, collaborative process, with improvisation and live electronic instruments prominently featured. In 1971, he returned to New York from Italy.
In 1977, Rzewski became Professor of Composition at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liège, Belgium, then directed by Henri Pousseur. Occasionally, he taught for short periods at schools and universities throughout the U.S. and Europe, including Yale University, the University of Cincinnati, the California Institute of the Arts, the University of California, San Diego, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and Trinity College of Music, London.
Many of Rzewski's works were inspired by secular and socio-historical themes, show a deep political conscience and feature improvisational elements. His better-known works include The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (36 variations on the Sergio Ortega song "El pueblo unido jamás será vencido"); Coming Together, a setting of letters from Sam Melville, an inmate at Attica State Prison, at the time of the riots there (1972); North American Ballads (I. Dreadful Memories; II. Which Side Are You On?; III. Down by the Riverside; IV. Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues) (1978–79); Night Crossing with Fisherman; Fougues; Fantasia and Sonata; The Price of Oil, and Le Silence des Espaces Infinis, both of which use graphical notation; Les Moutons de Panurge; and the Antigone-Legend. Rzewski's later compositions include Nanosonatas (2006–2010) and Cadenza con o senza Beethoven (2003), written for Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto. Rzewski played the solo part in the world premiere of his piano concerto at the 2013 BBC Proms.

## Personal life and death

In 1963, Rzewski married Nicole Abbeloos; they had five children. While Rzewski never divorced Abbeloos, his companion for about the last 20 years of his life was Françoise Walot, with whom he had two children. He also had five grandchildren. Rzewski died of an apparent heart attack in Montiano, Tuscany, Italy, on June 26, 2021, at the age of 83.

## Appraisal

Nicolas Slonimsky said of Rzewski in 1993: "He is furthermore a granitically overpowering piano technician, capable of depositing huge boulders of sonoristic material across the keyboard without actually wrecking the instrument." Michael Schell called Rzewski "the most important living composer of piano music, and surely one of the dozen or so most important living American composers".
In Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981), Robert Christgau reviewed Coming Together/Attica/Moutons de Panurge, an album recorded with vocals by performance artist Steve Ben Israel and released in 1973 by Opus One Records. "The design of 'Coming Together' is simple, even minimal", Christgau said. "Steve ben Israel reads and rereads one of Sam Melville's letters from Attica over a jazzy, repetitious vamp. Yet the result is political art as expressive and accessible as Guernica. In ben Israel's interpretation, Melville's prison years have made him both visionary and mad, and the torment of his incarceration is rendered more vivid by the nagging intensity of the music. The [LP's] other side features a less inspiring political piece and a percussion composition, each likable but not compelling, but that's a cavil. 'Coming Together' is amazing."

## Selected discography
### As composer

* Four North American Ballads, played by Paul Jacobs (Nonesuch Records on Paul Jacobs Plays Blues, Ballads & Rags D-79006 (LP) & 79006-2 (CD re-issue ) 1980(LP) 1993 (CD)
* The People United Will Never Be Defeated! and Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues played by Michael Noble on American Dissident (198004840682) 2022.
* The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, played by Stephen Drury (New Albion NA 063) 1994
* The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, played by Marc-André Hamelin (Hyperion Records CDA67077) 1998
* The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, played by Corey Hamm (Redshift Records TK431) 2014
* De Profundis, 4 North American Ballads, played by Lisa Moore (Cantaloupe Music 21014) 2003
* Main Drag played by Alter Ego (Stradivarius STR33631SD) 2003
* Fred – Music of Frederic Rzewski played by Eighth Blackbird (Cedille CDR90000-084) 2005
* Rzewski & Adams: Piano Works played by Emanuele Arciuli (Stradivarius STR33735) 2006
* The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, played by Ralph van Raat (Naxos 8.559360) 2008
* The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, played by Christopher Hinterhuber (Paladino PMR0037) 2012
* Four Pieces, Hard Cuts and The Housewife's Lament played by Ralph van Raat et al. (Naxos 8.559759) 2014
* The People United Will Never Be Defeated! and Four Hands played by Ursula Oppens and Jerome Lowenthal (Cedille CDR90000-158) 2015
* The People United Will Never Be Defeated!, played by Igor Levit on Igor Levit plays Bach, Beethoven, Rzewski (Sony Classical 88875060962) 2015
* Songs of Insurrection, played by Thomas Kotcheff (Coviello Contemporary COV 92021) 2020
* Sometimes, played by Imani Winds on Bruits (Bright Shiny Things). 2021.
* Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, played by Christina Petrowska-Quilico on Retro Americana (Navona Records NAV6361) 2021.
* The Turtle and the Crane, played by Christina Petrowska-Quilico on Vintage Americana (Navona Records NAV6384) 2021.
* Speaking Rzewski, played by Stephane Ginsburgh on (Sub Rosa SR523) 2021.

### As pianist

* Anthony Braxton – Creative Orchestra Music 1976 (Arista, 1976)
* Anthony Braxton – For Two Pianos (Arista, 1980 [1982])
* Marc-Henri Cykiert, Capriccio Hassidico (Igloo Records IGL095) 1991
* Cornelius Cardew – We Sing For The Future! 2001
* Tom Johnson – An Hour for Piano (1985)
* Henri Pousseur – Aquarius-Memorial (2001)
* Henri Pousseur – La Guirlande de Pierre (1995)
* Stockhausen – Kontra-Punkte (RCA Victrola, 1967)
* Stockhausen – Klavierstück X (Wergo) 2014 CD re-issue
* Rzewski Plays Rzewski: Piano Works 1975–1999 (7-CD box set, Nonesuch, 2002)

## Literature

* Rzewski, Frederic. Nonsequiturs—Writings & Lectures on Improvisation, Composition, and Interpretation (Unlogische Folgerungen—Schriften und Vorträge zu Improvisation, Komposition und Interpretation). Edition Musiktexte, Cologne, 2007. ISBN 3-9803151-8-5.
* Петров, Владислав Олегович. Фредерик Ржевски: путь обновления традиций. Astrakhan: AIPKP, 2011, p. 100.
* Petrov, Vladislav O. Frederic Rzewski: upgrade path traditions. Astrakhan: AIPKP, 2011, p. 100.