Rzewski: The People United Will Never Be Defeated! Variations
Igor Levit (piano) (Sony)
(scroll down for English review)
定居歐洲數十年的美國作曲家熱夫斯基（Frederic Rzewski，1938-2021）於上周六去世，終年83歲。他是上世紀前衛音樂一個重要名字，除了作曲也不時演奏其他前衛作曲家的作品。他最主要的作品範疇是鋼琴音樂，所以趁此機會重溫他最膾炙人口的作品《不屈之民變奏曲》。
話說擅長前衛音樂的美國鋼琴家Ursula Oppens打算演奏貝多芬《迪亞貝利變奏曲》，但此曲不夠一場獨奏會的長度，便請熱夫斯基寫一套全新的變奏曲用來和貝多芬演奏。巴哈《哥德堡》有30變奏、貝多芬《迪亞貝利》有33變奏，熱夫斯基《不屈之民》寫夠36變奏，在最後變奏及主題重現之間，還留了空間給演奏者作即興演奏，但不是必須。主題的旋律是同名南美社運歌曲，直譯意思是「團結的人民永遠不敗」。
這套一小時作品，說前衛不算很前衛，但也不是巴哈或貝多芬那種易聽，可說是在以傳統的框架，寫出不太偏離大眾口味、又略帶前衛的音樂，隱含不少當時前衛音樂的招數，但因為用了變奏曲式，尤如不同前衛風格的tasting menu，再艱澀也只是一陣子而已。我覺得像聽《哥德堡》或《迪亞貝利》般挑幾個特別好聽或搶耳的變奏，沒有多大意義，這曲其實較為接近貝多芬多過巴哈，類似《迪亞比利》般在佻皮及深邃之間游走。
反而可以用三段結構去聽，即如《哥德堡》以五個變奏一組，氣氛在一半的第15變奏去到最沉鬱然後谷底反彈，《不屈之民》可以每12個變奏捆成一紥，即時這張碟的軌1-13、14-25、26-38，去到第三組，氣氛開始變得戰鬥格。須知在1970年代，正是南美左翼最黑暗的年代，就算口說「團結的人民永遠不敗」，現實是南美諸國的軍政府鎮壓得最狠之時，熱夫斯基用了這首歌曲，箇中當然也在回應時代。
選了列維特這個錄音，不是說他彈得最好，而是這錄音最易找。此外，在今天重溫之前我沒聽過這碟，但是兩年前在東京聽過他彈，他在第一場彈《哥德堡》、第二場彈《迪亞貝利》及《不屈之民》。列維特是當今彈此曲而最有名的鋼琴家，熱夫斯基這幾年也寫過一些新作給他。
American avant-garde pianist-composer Frederic Rzewski (1938-2021) passed away last Saturday. So I took the chance to revisit his most-famous work, the variations on the South American protest song “The People United Will Never Be Defeated!”.
Commissioned by Ursula Oppens to fill out a recital of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, Rzewski came up with 36 variations, one-upping Beethoven’s 33 and Bach’s 30 on Goldberg Variations. This is slightly avant-gardish music that wouldn’t sway too much away from popular taste. To me this work is like a tasting menu of various styles in the 20th century modern music. As it was grounded in the classical form of variations, the toughest-sounding variations would never get too long.
I think it doesn’t help to select individual variations as one would in Beethoven or Bach. Indeed this work played around a whole gamut of emotions very much in the mould of the Diabelli Variations. Better to approach this work in three sets of 12 variations each. The mood started to become militant from the third part, as if calling the people to arms. While this piece was written in the 1970s, the South American people were being defeated by various juntas of the region. By expressing his convictions in terms of music, Rzewski also left us a mammoth work for posterity.
I selected this Igor Levit recording not because I considered it as the reference interpretation, mostly because it’s the easiest one to find and hear online. But I do have a personal interest, as I hadn’t listened to this recording because I heard him play it live in Tokyo in 2019. In those recitals he played the Goldbergs in the first show, and the Diabellis and this set in the second show. Among champions of Rzewski’s music, Levit is probably the best known. In the last years of his life, Rzewski composed several works for Levit.