Conrad Tao’s American Rage traces a lineage of protest, grief and resistance through American piano music. Released on Warner Classics, the album features Tao in works by Frederic Rzewski, Aaron Copland and Julia Wolfe, moving from Depression-era labor struggles to the aftermath of 9/11 and the deep divisions of the present day.
Bookended by Rzewski’s Which Side Are You On?, based on Florence Reece’s 1931 protest song, and Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues, drawn from the sound world of industrial labor, the program centers on Wolfe’s Compassion and Copland’s Piano Sonata. Urgent, reflective and politically charged, American Rage presents Tao as both pianist and thinker, using virtuosity, structure and expressive force to illuminate music shaped by crisis and dissent.
Conrad Tao, Piano
RZEWSKIWhich Side Are You On?
COPLANDPiano Sonata
WOLFECompassion
RZEWSKI Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues from Four North American Ballads
Discs: 1 Record Label: Warner Classics Release Date: October 25, 2019
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