Catalog Number–MC101
Number of Discs–2
Duration–142:20
Price (includes domestic shipping)–USA$25
Price (outside USA, includes shipping)–USA$30
"A natural musical genius who continues to surpass himself."
– Tim Page The Washington Post
"The evening felt downright historic. [Hersch] conjured volcanic gestures from the piano with astonishing virtuosity. Everything unfolds in open-ended, haiku-like eruptions, though built on ideas that recur throughout the 50 movements, from a lamenting, chantlike melody to passages of such speed and density you'd think the complete works of Franz Liszt were played simultaneously within three minutes. Overtly or covertly, The Vanishing Pavilions is about the destruction of shelter (both in fact and in concept) and life amid the absence any certainty. And though the music is as deeply troubled as can be, its restless directness also commands listeners not to be paralyzed by existential futility."
– The Philadelphia Inquirer
"If the symmetries and proportions of Mr. Hersch's music evoke the grounded fixity of architecture, its dynamism and spontaneous evolution are those of the natural world. Its somber eloquence sings of truths that are personal yet not confessional… Within the sober palette, the expressive power and range are vast."
– The New York Times
Michael Hersch is a remarkable composer and virtuoso pianist, whose concert appearances have dazzled audiences and whose recordings, driven by glowing critical acclaim, have won him an international following. Musical Concepts is pleased to announce the highly anticipated release of his epic piece for solo piano, The Vanishing Pavilions, premiered by the composer in Philadelphia during the autumn of 2006 to rapturous reviews.
"Hersch is one of the most fertile musical minds to emerge in the U.S. over the past generation, and this two-hour work for piano solo is his magnum opus. … [I]ts powerful imagination and poetic mood compel attention."
– Financial Times (London)
"… [H]e has composed one of the most unusual pieces in memory: The Vanishing Pavilions for piano, a work in two "books," as Hersch describes them, and taking about two hours and twenty minutes to play. Apart from his composing, Hersch is a brilliant pianist, and there could be no better advocate of his own music. …[T]the work is barely fathomable: reflecting terror, agony, wonder. I hesitate to describe it. It seems both intensely personal and universal. It is ferocious, desperate, manic; titanic, daunting, world-containing; visionary, apocalyptic, inexorable. You sometimes want to look away from it; it can be terrible to contemplate. And yet you still heed it. You sense that the piece is both reacting to this world and striving for something beyond. I intend to live with The Vanishing Pavilions for a while longer. It has gotten under my skin, as it must; it has even disturbed my sleep. A first hearing takes a considerable amount of time, especially given the lives so many of us now lead. But one hearing is plainly insufficient. Michael Hersch has something to say, and he bears listening to."
– National Review
"Your deepest fears and most monumental anger seem to aired and examined – in music that's an artistic expression of the highest sophistication, and never more so than in The Vanishing Pavilions. … [P]erhaps the most imposing work yet in an output that began imposingly more than a decade ago …"
– Philadelphia Inquirer
"Hersch's daring and personal musical language displays a magnificent spectrum of colors and textures right from the start. Concentrated listening is a necessity for the audience and since this is a work of such gigantic proportions, it is no journey for the weak-minded. The composer performs his own work on this release and does so with outstanding commitment and virtuosity, which only adds to the qualities of this fascinating recording."
– Muso (UK)
"This is music of raw, elemental gravity, which proceeds at its own unhurried pace. The music of each movement has an immediate, visceral impact; it sounds like it springs from, and speaks to, some deep, primordial place, unmediated by any system or even the niceties of compositional correctness. The variety that Hersch's tonal and gestural palette brings to each movement, as well as the music's restless, unpredictable rhythmic energy, commands the listener's attention. Hersch's performance is stunning in its vitality and virtuosity."
– allmusic.com
Michael Hersch
The Vanishing Pavilions
Michael Hersch, piano