Two works by the American composer Lou Harrison (19172003), namely contain the four-movement Piano Concerto and Suite For Violin, Piano And Small Orchestra, are on this CD. The Piano Concerto was recorded on January 30, 1986 live in Tokyo, the Suite in May 1988 in a New York studio. Keith Jarrett was for some time an admirer of the music of Harrison and there are two more photographs of him as interpreters of Harrison compositions (Symphony No. 2 Elegiac and seven Pastoral). The admiration was, moreover, no one-way street, because Lou Harrison wrote his Piano Concerto specifically for Keith Jarrett. Harrison stipulated that the piano was to vote for this piece in a particular pitch (Kirnberger II). The Allegro-set the concert inaugurated and voluminous, before a stampede called set vigorously and rhythmically brings numerous percussion instruments are used. Soft and lyrical, the Largo before a short, fresh-sounding Allegro moderato closes the concert. It is a varied, exciting piece, whose piano parts (of course) are strongly emphasized. Jarrett is playing very intensively to my mind, becoming the burden einzuspielen be Harrison concert accordance representative, more than justice. The Piano Concerto is certainly a little better than the suite, the second work on the CD. Here you can clearly see the influence of Far Eastern traditions composition that Harrison recorded in his youth days in San Francisco when he frequently visited the Chinese opera in Chinatown SF and appreciate this music learned. The six relatively short parts of the suite (with Lucy Stoltz man on fiddle) act partly as miniatures of the music of Peking opera, partly very harmonious and relaxed, but partly somewhat expressionless. Overall, Harrison compositions on this album are an impressive example of how contemporary classical music knows quite touching. Barely no Five Sterner!
