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Rakowski Etudes Vol. 1 CD artwork
  1. Book II No. 20 Fourth of Habit
  2. Book II No. 15 The Third, Man
  3. Book II No. 17 Keine Kaskadenjagd Mehr
  4. Book II No. 16 Ice Boogie
  5. Book II No. 18 Pitching from the Stretch
  6. Book II No. 19 Secondary Dominance
  7. Book II No. 12 Northpaw
  8. Book II No. 11 Touch Typing
  9. Book IV No. 36 Purple
  10. Book II No. 13 Plucking A
  11. Book II No. 14 Martler
  12. Book II No. 21 Twelve-Step Program
  13. Book II No. 29 Roll Your Own
  14. Book III No. 23 You Dirty Rag
  15. Book III No. 24 Horned In
  16. Book III No. 30 A Gliss is Just a Gliss
  17. Book III No. 26 Once Bitten
  18. Book III No. 27 Halftone
  19. Book IV No. 35 Luceole
  20. Book III No. 28 You've Got Scale
  21. Book III No. 22 Schnozzage
  22. Book III No. 25 Fists of Fury

David Rakowski
Etudes, Vol. 1 from Books II, III and IV

Amy Dissanayake, piano
Bridge Records 9121 Purchase at Bridge Records

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David Rakowski's music in general, and his continually expanding collection of solo piano Etudes in particular — at this writing 48 of what he projects to be 50 or more have been composed — are laced with examples of his agile mind and sheer delight in his ability to, as he puts it, "play games with the ways that notes get put together."

It seems particularly felicitous to invoke the name of Haydn when discussing the music of David Rakowski. Like Haydn, Rakowski combines a genuine seriousness of purpose and absolute command of a highly sophisticated technique with flahses of humor that is by turns wry, more than a little bent, whimsical and even, at times, outrageous. Obvious manifestations of this can include not only the punning titles of so many of Rakowski's pieces, including those of the Etudes on this disk, but also the performance indications in the score themselves ("Allegro troppo" - too fast"; "pipistrello in uscita dal inferno" - "bat out of hell").

Pianist Amy Dissanayake makes her recorded debut with stunning performances of twenty-two of Rakowski's Etudes, many receiving their premiere recordings. This disc is for fans of virtuoso pianism and new music that is simultaneously subtle, richly complex and teeming with ideas, yet lucid in structure and distinctive in profile.