Four pianists, a cantor and a composer walk into a recording studio.
The result? Not a punchline, but a richly varied collection of inventive works that revel in the possibilities of the piano.
These pieces are part of a centuries-old tradition of writing preludes and fugues — carefully constructed works exploring interwoven musical lines.
What does this practice sound like in an era where Bach, Balinese Gamelan, traditional Jewish dances, classic funk and modernist experiments are all just a click away?
Enter David S. Lefkowitz. He’s an Eastman School of Music alum and a Los Angeles-based composer who teaches at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
His preludes and fugues are divided into two books, played over the two-disc album by pianists Steven Beck, David Kaplan, Michael Mizrahi and Mika Sasaki — with grace, intelligence and a willingness to explore.
First there is “Expanded Universe,” where the piano’s familiar timbre plays musical tapestries woven out of newly invented scales. Some float dreamily with an almost pop-instrumental sensibility, while others dance enigmatically around the keys.
Things get (delightfully) weird in the second book, “Parallel Universes,” thanks to “prepared” piano — with various items placed between the strings to alter the instrument’s sound. The string is even rubbed with a metal screw until it starts vibrating.
Some of these “Parallel Universes” pieces draw inspiration from abstract French painter Marcelle Cahn, among others. It’s also where you hear the composer whistling, and in one of my favorites, Prelude and Fugue No. 12, “Nigun, Hora & Freylekh” cantor Marcus Feldman’s lines intertwine with the piano.
Even though you can get lost in these little musical worlds, the pieces resist letting themselves become background, as they continue to surprise, unsettle and delight.
