Frederic Rzewski - The People United Will Never Be Defeated (Hamelin)

Rest in Peace, Frederic Rzewski (April 13, 1938 – June 26, 2021)

I was so sad to hear about Rzewski's recent death that I almost felt the urge to make a score video as a tribute to him. He was such an incredible figure, not singularly as a composer or as a pianist-virtuoso but as both; among the most important contemporary figures of the pianist-composers of America, he managed to merge innovative techniques with creative counterpoint, improvisatory elements, and political topics in his music, showing a deep coscience of socio-historical themes.

"The People United will never be Defeated!" (1975) based on Sergio Ortega's chilean protest song "¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido!", is today considered a modern classic of piano literature, and is sometimes even regarded as the most important set of variations since Bach's Goldberg and Beethoven's Diabelli. The structure of the piece is incredibly ingenious: 36 Variations, some lyrical and melodical, reflective, other violent and nearly atonal; each 6th variation is a recapitulation of the previous ones, with a cadenza in the middle, eventually leading to vars. 31-35 which are a partial recapitulation of the entire preceding ones, and then the variation 36, which is fundamentally a miniature of the entire piece, followed by an optional improvised cadenza and the final epic restatement of the inital theme.

00:00 Intro
00:16 Theme: With determination
01:37 Var. I Weaving, delicate but firm
02:28 Var. II With firmness
03:20 Var. III Slightly slower, with expressive nuances
04:25 Var. IV Marcato
05:22 Var. V Dreamlike, frozen
06:30 Var. VI Same tempo as beginning
07:39 Var. VII Tempo. Lightly, impatiently
08:30 Var. VIII With agility; not too much pedal; crisp
09:33 Var. IX Evenly
10:35 Var. X Comodo, recklessly
11:29 Var. XI Tempo I. Like fragments of an absent melody – in strict time
12:22 Var. XII
13:34 Var. XIII q = 72
15:31 Var. XIV A bit faster, optimistically
16:46 Var. XV Flexible, like an improvisation
18:11 Var. XVI Same tempo as preceding, with fluctuations; much pedal
19:47 Var. XVII LH strictly h = 36
21:10 Var. XVIII q = 72
22:48 Var. XIX With energy
23:23 Var. XX Crisp, precise
23:54 Var. XXI Relentless, uncompromising
24:41 Var. XXII q = 132
25:24 Var. XXIII As fast as possible, with some rubato
25:47 Var. XXIV q = 72
28:20 Var. XXV q = ca. 84, with fluctuations
30:21 Var. XXVI In a militant manner
32:39 Var. XXVII Tenderly, and with a hopeful expression [Cadenza]
37:02 Var. XXVIII q = 160
38:21 Var. XXIX q = 144-152
38:54 Var. XXX q = 84
41:32 Var. XXXI (q = 160)
42:26 Var. XXXII
43:17 Var. XXXIII
44:17 Var. XXXIV
45:13 Var. XXXV
46:09 Var. XXXVI
48:06 Improvised Cadenza
54:32 Theme