Hasn’t The People United held up nicely? Credit due to Hamelin for bringing the piece to new, wider and younger audiences (as he has done with a few other contemporary composers). Worth mentioning Rzewski, himself a virtuoso pianist, recorded it, as well as Ursula Oppens, who championed the piece back in the day (late 1970s). The original Oppens recording was reissued a while back. Rzewski and Oppens were also closely associated with an incredible little group of musicians and composers who came from the avant-garde jazz scene back then. Anthony Braxton wrote For Two Pianos for them (and Oppens was Julius Hemphill’s partner until his early death). I was lucky to catch what may have been Rzewski’s last public performance in the UK when the Late Music Festival in York had a concert in his honour a few years ago; Rzewski and Ian Pace, who hosted the series, played four hands at the end.
