George Crumb

In 1971, George Crumb set out to compose a set of piano pieces; the preludes of Debussy and Chopin as well as Well Tempered Klavier of J.S. Bach come to mind as prototypes. What emerged after two years of painstaking distillation, Crumb’s Makrokosmos Vol. 1 & 2 for amplified piano, has proved a worthy heir to its 18th and 19th century analogs. Makrokosmos is a multi-dimensional odyssey through a universe of metaphysical timbres created via a compendium of extended piano techniques. These include the use of metal chains, paper on the strings, wire brush, paper clip, metal thimbles, whistling and Latin incantations. Crumb closes the ‘magic circle of infinity’ with these exceptional works, fusing performer with instrument, music with timbre, primitive with modern, terror with romance, lyricism with violence.

Taking advantage of state-of-the-art digital recording technology, producer Marc Wolf & Engineer Jeremy Tressler have captured George Crumb’s timeless Makrokosmos in stunning detail, clarity and dynamic range, promising to take the listener literally inside the guts of a 9 foot Steinway. If you need to own one version of Makrokosmos, this is the one!

"Laurie Hudicek's brilliant, commanding, and virtuosic new recording of George Crumb's Makrokosmos, Volumes 1 and 2, can immediately take an honored place beside the classic recordings by David Burge (of Volume 1) and Robert Miller (of Volume 2) . And, given the fact that she has generously recorded both volumes, this makes a handier one-CD collection that either of the earlier.

Her tempos and interpretation are decidedly her own. So is her voice. But it is just as alarming to hear her soprano shouts of "Christe" and "Tora" and moanings as it was to hear Burge's basso. She captures all of Crumb's madness and mystery. The presence she brings to this CD is nothing short of stunning." - Mark Alburger , 21st Century Music, June 2002

The work in question is a pair of piano sequences based upon themes of the zodiac. Crumb’s soundworld, for those unfamiliar, can be sparse and magical. Laurie Hudicek takes this work most seriously...but this new one by Hudicek earns special praise for giving each of the two times twelve pieces its own soundworld without losing any of the total architecture. Superb graphic design and the booklet includes excellent notes as well as the spiraling graphic score." -Steve Koenig, Jump Arts Journal, February 2004

"Pianist Laurie Hudicek tackles what many consider to be one of the monumental pieces of 20th century repertoire for solo piano. .A great recording of a true masterpiece." -New Music Box

"... It takes a daring musician to pull it off with such aplomb. Hudicek attacks the piece with equal parts finesse and sass, resulting in one of the more provocative CDs for solo piano to come along in quite a while." -Andrew Ervin, Washington City Paper, August 2-8