PHILIPPE MANOURY (b. 1952)

            Pluton for piano and live electronics (1988)

            Toccata—

            Antiphonie—

            Séquences—

            Modulations—

            Variations

Andrew Russo, piano

Miller Puckette, sound design

“The pianoforte is the most perfect of all musical instruments: its invention was to music what the invention of printing was to poetry,” wrote George Bernard Shaw. Mozart played it, as did Beethoven. For many composers, until the advent of computer technology, it is the instrument from where they began the creation of a work—Stravinsky especially comes to mind—from a solo sonata to a full orchestral symphony. Made of wood, metal strings made to vibrate by hammer-blows, its percussive nature has been explored by artists ranging from Bartók to Jerry Lee Lewis. And just as Shaw compared the revolution caused by the printing press to the invention of the piano, in the 20th-century technological revolution the instrument of Horowitz and Elton John may be re-invented, re-considered, re-played.

The Ideal (Dis-) Placements Concert Series at the Pulitzer is held in collaboration with the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra. The pieces performed relate directly to the exhibition Ideal (Dis-) Placements: Old Masters at the Pulitzer and are performed by members of the Saint Louis Symphony. Each of the programs are chosen by Music Director David Robertson based on the way they relate to the exhibition concepts and the works of art on view.