Player Piano 8: Michael Denhoff (2009)

Jürgen Hocker is responsible for restoring two player pianos on which Conlon Nancarrow's Studies for Player Piano could be played, and also for restoring the piano rolls themselves. He set up the pianos according to the composer's specifications, and history owes him a debt for having made it possible to finally hear Nancarrow's Studies the way the composer intended. Hocker has made the instruments available to other composers and encouraged the creation of a new repertoire for the player piano, and this disc of music by ... Read More

Jürgen Hocker is responsible for restoring two player pianos on which Conlon Nancarrow's Studies for Player Piano could be played, and also for restoring the piano rolls themselves. He set up the pianos according to the composer's specifications, and history owes him a debt for having made it possible to finally hear Nancarrow's Studies the way the composer intended. Hocker has made the instruments available to other composers and encouraged the creation of a new repertoire for the player piano, and this disc of music by German composer Michael Denhoff is a result of that enterprise. His Introvention mit Bach (...Steve Reich ist auch dabei...) is a goofy, tongue-in-cheek juxtaposition of a Bach invention with the theme from Reich's Piano Phase. The other two pieces on the CD are considerably more substantial: multi-movement works that take the player piano in some directions that Nancarrow didn't develop. Whereas Nancarrow was primarily concerned with melody, counterpoint, and canons in complex ratios,... Read Less