Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of George Crumb's 'Makrokosmos Volume I'
Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of George Crumb's 'Makrokosmos Volume I'
Composed in 1972, George Crumb's "Makrokosmos Volume I" is a monumental masterwork of 20th-Century piano literature. To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of its composition, I have commissioned twelve composers to each write a response to one movement of Crumb's original epic piece, to create a brand new celestial cycle.
"Nic Gerpe gives it a superbly played reading that checks all of the boxes of Crumb’s multi-faceted 20th century classic... the recording provides an impressive cross-section of some of today’s finest composers of new music. Nic Gerpe shows enormous pianistic versatility by beautifully playing all twelve works."
Review on The Art Music Lounge
"Taken on its own merits, then, this performance of Makrokosmos Book I is a superb one. Just listening to it, you feel as if you’re right there in the room with Gerpe as he plays, shouts, and occasionally whistles the music... This is, on balance, an extraordinary album... Would that we had more albums like this in the classical world; it would be a much more interesting place to visit."
Check out this terrific review of my Makrokosmos 50 Project performance on Maui - 8/24/22 at the ProArts Playhouse, presented by Ebb and Flow Arts.
L.A. Times Music Critic Mark Swed described it as "magical" and featured it in his wonderful article about Birtwistle, Crumb, Rzewski, Andriessen, Kraft and Lucier.
Harrison Birtwistle, George Crumb and a composer generation lost - Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
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