Conlon Nancarrow - Nancarrow: Late and Unknown. Works on Rolls (2023)

For decades, Conlon Nancarrow's creative activity was confined to the privacy of his studio: he wrote music for the player piano, punched it manually onto paper rolls, and listened to it played by his mechanical instruments. There is no more authentic way of experiencing Nancarrow's extraordinary repertoire than listening to it on his own specially modified instruments. In honor of the 100th birthday of Nancarrow, Wergo presents Late and Unknown, an album featuring numerous first recordings on the composer's own player pianos. The program documents Nancarrow's practice of turning old rolls into new works and his usage of the player piano as a tool for testing practically everything he wrote. Of special note, current technology has made possible the first recording of a properly coordinated version of the ambitious Study No. 48c for two superimposed rolls.