Margaret Leng Tan - Crumb: Metamorphoses, Book 1 & 5 Pieces for Piano (2018)

George Crumb's Book 1 of the Metamorphoses is hardly the work of a novice, as it dates back to 2017 – when the composer was 87 years old! This is a recording of a public performance given in Donaueschingen by the pianist (and dedicatee of the work) Margaret Leng. It is a cycle of ten pieces based on the paintings of Paul Klee, Vincent van Gogh, Marc Chagall, James Whistler, Jasper Johns, Paul Gauguin, Salvador Dalí and Vasily Kandinsky: a kind of art gallery exhibition guide for amplified piano. The pianist also sometimes needs to use her voice and reach under the fall board to pinch or muffle a few strings with her hands, which gives us these intriguing, powerful sounds which can only be obtained in this way; at points she also plays a "toy piano" and percussion instruments, themselves toys – in particular on the delicious Clowns at Night. By way of historical comparison, the album closes with 1962's Five Pieces for Piano, much gruffer, and more avant-garde – this was the era of compulsory serialism, disjointed sounds, and intellectual gesture. But half a century later, the Metamorphoses, gladly return to themes, beauty, discourse, emotion, coherence and pure humanity.