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Frederic Rzewski: Nanosonatas on CD

Composed between 2006 and 2010, Frederic Rzewski's Nanosonatas are a cycle of 56 brief piano pieces, structured into eight books. Conceived after his vast work The Road, these sonatas focus instead on concision, restraint, and the poetics of incompletion. Each nanosonata offers a fleeting glimpse-suggesting larger ideas, then stopping abruptly, like a character in Tolstoy evoked in just a few lines.

Despite their brevity, the Nanosonatas contain striking variety: echoes of Scarlatti, Schumann, Shostakovich, folk tunes, protest songs, and even boxing gestures all contribute to a vivid and unpredictable sound world. Deeply personal and philosophical, the cycle embraces imperfection as an aesthetic, resisting closure while reflecting on time, memory, and fragility.

Rzewski saw these works as part of a living keyboard tradition-from Frescobaldi to the present-and a continuation of the composer-performer lineage. Pianist Daan Vandewalle's performance, shaped by years of artistic dialogue with Rzewski, captures both the intimate nuance and radical spirit of this masterful late work.