New Release: Modern Music from Wayne Alpern
Label: Henri Elkan Music
Release Date: June 27, 2025
Website: https://www.waynealpern.com
Composer Wayne Alpern has compiled tracks that are performed by pianist Steven Beck for his release Modern Music, a collection of music for solo piano with a modern perspective. Produced by Judith Sherman, the recording showcases various musical styles, forms, and expressions. For instance, the track "Gigue" demonstrates the tempo and style that defines gigue, a Baroque dance form performed on piano. "Prelude" and "March" all do the same, performing traditional chord patterns for each, infused with Beck's perspective. Track after track is a lesson in standard musical form from the nimble movements of "Partita," stringing together various patterns that travel from fast and dynamic to slow and pensive, followed by the dreamy soundscape of "Reverie," as Beck intermittently plays one sequence with his left hand countered by a complementing sequence with his right hand. The fusion of the two sequences projects the image of two winged elements moving independently while remaining linked together. Alpern describes his project as "reimagining and reinterpreting different musical styles, historical genres, and vernacular idioms in the language of modern music—to the essential realm of solo piano." Noting that Steven Beck is "one of the very few pianists capable of mastering the multiplicity of different keyboard styles this ambitious project requires." The collection is comprised of twenty short pieces that rejuvenates traditional idioms with a modern slant.
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