Steve Reich (played by Peter Aidu) Piano Phase

[peteraidu]

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This release is the recorded live performance of Steve Reich's "Piano Phase", played in an absolute unique manner by ingenious Peter Aidu, one of the most highly acclaimed pianist in Russia.

Stephen Reich is an American composer, a pioneer of minimalism; his countless compositions, unique inventions and musical works have significantly influenced the contemporary music of the world. Steve Reich was described as one of the few composers, who have altered the direction of musical history. At the 3rd October 2006 we were celebrating the 70th birthday of Steve Reich, and this live action and the release of top-40.org are somehow dedicated to this great anniversary.



Reich invented his original "phasing" technology in the beginning of 1960's. He was using two copies of the same tape loop, playing simultaneously on different machines, and over time, the slight differences in the speed of the tape machines causes a flanging effect and then rhythmic separation to occur. Originally, phasing was only a studio experimental technique for tape loops, but in 1967 Steve composed a Piano Phase, a piece of music for two pianos. It was his first attempt at applying the phasing to live performance.

Two pianists are playing a rapid twelve-note melodic figure over and over again in unison. As one player precisely keeps the tempo, the other speeds up very slightly until the two parts line up again, but one sixteenth note apart. The second player then resumes the previous tempo. This cycle of speeding up and then locking in continues throughout the piece; the cycle comes full circle three times, the second and third cycles using shorter versions of the initial figure. Typically, two pianists play the Piano Phase without breaks at any stage for fifteen, twenty minutes or so.

But on the October 2006, Peter Aidu performed this composition with an absolutely unique technique. While playing on two pianos, with a left hand on one instrument and the right hand playing separately on the second piano, he was recreating the sounding of two performers! This tremendous performance was accurately recorded, and now is available exclusively from top-40.org.
Peter Aidu (born 10 June, 1976 in Moscow, Russia) is the classically trained professional composer and piano, organ, harpsichord, hammerclavier, lute and percussion performer. His scenic career began in 1991, than Peter won the first price at International Junior Competition of Pianists at Cincinnati, USA. Since than, Peter played a numerous solo live performances at Russia, Germany, Hungary, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, and other countries. He is a scholar of International Foundation of Nicholay Petrov; occasionally Peter was playing with a Mark Pekarsky Percussion Project ensemble on keyboards. Peter Aidu is also a very authoritative enthusiast of antique keyboard instruments, and the collector of antique grand pianos.

Cover photo by Ivan Smirnov
Steve Reich photo provided by wikipedia.org
Video edited by Nikita Tsymbal

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