Ringing Changes

Description

Piano 1, Piano 2 — Levinson reimagines material from an earlier work (Ragamalika), inspired, as he says, “both by Balinese gamelan and North Indian ragas.” From the program notes of this intricate new piano duo, Levinson says, “The main sections of the present work substantially reimagine that music yet again as a 'shadow canon' at increasingly close time intervals, so that the irregular metrical groups in the original line produce cross-rhythmic entanglements between the two pianos. This material is framed by, and alternates with, entirely new contrasting passages in still, quiet bell chords, evoking a sense of suspended time amid the general high-energy onrushing virtuosity.”