This Was Written by Hand (CD Review)

This Was Written by Hand

Piano Music by David Lang

Andrew Zolinsky, piano

Cantaloupe Music CD

Wed, the audition piece for the David Lang 2011 Competition, is featured on This Was Written By Hand, David Lang's latest CD, a recital disc recorded for Cantaloupe by pianist Andrew Zolinksy. It is one of eight "Memory Pieces" included on the disc. This group serves as postminimal "Characterstucke," an attractive and mercurial group of contrasting miniatures.

Then there is the touching title work. One of Lang's most organically constructed pieces, it was, indeed, written by hand and intuitively constructed. A meditation on the ephemeral nature of life, it captures a similar poignancy to Lang's recent vocal work "Little Matchgirl Passion," but writ smaller, more intimately. To both this and the Memory Pieces, Zolinsky brings a fluid grace and subtlety that abets the spontaneous, almost improvisatory, character of the material.