Frederic Rzewski "Mayn Yingele" for piano, in L.A., 12/10/05

Frederic Rzewski, "Mayn Yingele' (1988-89) and other works for solo piano. Elaine Lust - Piano.

as well as --

Songs in Yiddish for choir, performed by the Mit Gezang Yiddish Chorus of Los Angeles.


The Rzewski 'Mayn Yingele - Theme and 24 Variations' for piano was given it's West Coast premier on Saturday, December 10, 2005 at the Workmen's Circle Building in West Los Angeles. The pianist was Eliane Lust, from the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a specialist in Rzewski, and has recorded another of his works '24 Ludes'.

The Rzewski work was the center piece of a three part concert for that evening. During the first segment, Eliane Lust played a number of brief works by Schuman, Tchaikovsky and Greig, as well as Joplin and Grainger. All were well received and the Joplin was offered again (by popular concensus) as an encore.

The second concert segment featured the Mit Gezang Yiddish Chorus, under the direction of Kathryn Rowe. The entire choral presentation was of music sung in Yiddish, arranged for the choir by their director. It was interesting to hear a choral concert sung entirely in Yiddish. The Choir is small but mighty, currently including ten members. If they were somehow able to double their membership, they'd be able to project their music with twice their wonderful passion.

The final choral work of the concert was of a Morris Rosenfeld piece, Mayn Yingele (My Little Boy). The lyrics of the Mayn Yingele melody are of the plight of a father who, because of his grueling work schedule is seldom able to speak to and bond with his son. Following the second intermission, this was the theme used by Rzewski for his Mayn Yingele Theme and 24 Variations.

Using the modal melody from the original Mayn Yingele song gave the listener something concrete to identify with, thematically. This was a work that would perhaps challenge but not necessarily alienate a current day symphony hall concert goer. Rzewski sounded comfortable composing in both current and past idioms. He blended them together in a fluid set of variations with seemless ease. While some of the writing could be said (and essentially was said that evening, by the soloist) to resemble Beethoven-like writing for piano, other variations were less linear and contrapuntal utilizing sonic approaches more comman to writing of the late 20th century.

The concert occured on International Human Rights Day. It took place in the Workman's Circle building, a nondescript unpretentious location which houses an organization whose primary purpose is to advocate for Worker's Rights. The piano available to the choir for rehearsal was an upright that had both intonation and timbral limitations. The lid itself was propped open with a brick (artfully designed with tablets of The Ten Commandments abstracted on one side.) That Elaine Lust presented the work so successfully was nothing short of amazing, in my opinion. It seemed an amusing irony that she appeared to pay some serious musician's dues, in her endeavor to present this work, which personified the plight of the working class hero. Perhaps this performance was one that both Rosenfeld and Rzewski both might have appreciated.

Bruce Friedman