NANCARROW: Pieces for Small Orchestra / Tango? / String Quartet No. 1 - Continuum

Once fêted by György Ligeti as writing “the best music by any living composer”, Conlon Nancarrow was an iconoclastic composer in the American maverick tradition of Ives and Cage. His early compositions such as Toccata for Violin and Piano and Prelude and Blues are fantastical unions of jazz and Bachian counterpoint. In the 1940s, frustrated by performers’ unwillingness and inability to play his often complex music, Nancarrow became fascinated by the player piano, the instrument with which he is most closely associated. It was not until his seventies, with pieces such as ¿Tango? and the captivating Piece No. 2 for Small Orchestra, that Nancarrow’s music reached a wider audience and its energy, warmth and wit were fully appreciated.

Nancarrow, Conlon

 Piece No. 1 for Small Orchestra

 Toccata for Violin and Player Piano

 Prelude and Blues

Nancarrow, Conlon

Mikhashoff, Yvar Emilian - Arranger

 Study No. 15 (trans. Y. Mikhashoff)

 Tango?

 Sonatina (trans. Y. Mikhashoff)

Nancarrow, Conlon

 Trio Movement

 String Quartet No. 1