JOAN GUINJOAN (1931-2019): Complete Piano Works, Vol. 1 - Jondo, Digraf, Divagant, Verbum, Tempo Breve, Au revoir Barroco.

Catalogue Number: 11V057
Label: IBS
Reference: IBS102019
Format: CD
Price: $15.98
Description: Guinjoan takes a very individual approach to the piano, recognizably indebted to various post-2nd Viennese trends but not conforming to any of them. Cascading metallic clusters may recall Stockhausen, but Stockhausen eschewed the kind of tonal harmony that frequently occurs in Guinjoan, and repeating gestures and ostinato, like the straightforward Jondo rhythm in the piece with that title have generally been avoided by composers of the New Complexity persuasion whom Guinjoan's more extravagantly virtuosic gestures and overall atonality may resemble. What these pieces have in common is extroversion, a declamatory expressiveness which nonetheless seldom sounds aggressive or violent; and a seemingly boundless reserve of kinetic energy and dramatic force. The works are thrilling, highly concentrated and intense; almost never relaxed nor relaxing, and represent a strikingly different aesthetic of the piano than that adopted by most 20th century composers, however dedicated they may have been to the instrument. Alfonso Calderón de Castro (piano).