Frederic Rzewski is one of the most influential figures in contemporary music. In the composer’s own words, for this second, 1999 version of Fantasia, “I…changed the music to obscure the tune, putting in lots of wrong notes and kind of stomping on and smudging everything.” Second Hand, or Alone at Last was written for Robert Satterlee, the left hand “executing the most spectacular acrobatics.” Described by the composer as “melodramatic oratorio” for speaking pianist, De Profundis is a startlingly original work which uses an Oscar Wilde text written during his imprisonment in Reading Gaol and requires the pianist to recite, sing, hum, whistle, use a Harpo horn, and hit his own body and the piano while playing a score of considerable variety and drama.
