PRTZL [2CD]

PRTZL

Chamber Works composed by Michael Kieran Harvey

Michael Kieran Harvey (piano)

with

Arabella Teniswood-Harvey (piano)
Peter Sheridan (flute)
Peter Neville (percussion)

***

This release of original compositions by Harvey includes solo and ensemble works centred around the monumental fourth piano sonata, a homage to the courageous anti-fascist Antonio Gramsci. This anti-fascist theme percolates through all the works, which range in mood from nostalgically whimsical to furiously satirical.

This 2-CD set includes solo piano pieces, music for two and three pianos, works for piano with clarinet, violin, viola and cello – plus Toccata DNA for piano with flute and an amazing collection of percussion.

Michael Kieran Harvey pushes the boundaries of intellect and composition further than he has ever pushed before! In a satirical take on composition, PRTZL addresses some of the most pressing current trends and issues of our time, including politics, government, philosophy, mythology, society, culture and the environment.

There are a lot of big words, big ideas and big notes in here. Just to get started consider the concepts of Hegemony, Aporia, The Locrians, Gestalt and Prime Numbers. If art is always open to interpretation, Michael Kieran Harvey has prepared a canvas layered in a multitude of shapes, sizes and colours.

Profound philosophical ideas metamorphose into virtuoso musical works via the labyrinthine his pretzel-like mind. The piano is wrenched out of its accustomed home, the stately drawing room, to take on philosophical ideas of antifascists, Socrates, a Duchess of Braunschweig, sociologist Max Weber, and a notorious Hobart head-butter.

Translating these ideas to music, Harvey uses the obscure Locrian Mode, reverts to contacting the piano’s strings with flesh rather than being mediated via the keyboard, has pitch material slowly evolving like DNA, and bases his pitch material on the names of his philosophical and music heroes.

• Move Records
• MD 3447