Frederic Rzewski - The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (Emanuil Ivanov)

Information

Composer: Frederic Rzewski

• The People United Will Never Be Defeated! 36 Variations on ¡El Pueblo Unido Jamás Será Vencido!

Emanuil Ivanov, piano

Date: 2026

Label: Brilliant Classics

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Pianist Emanuil Ivanov, winner of the 2019 Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition, presents his debut album on Linn Records with Frederic Rzewski’s monumental 1975 work The People United Will Never Be Defeated!. Rzewski’s cycle of variations on the Chilean song ¡El pueblo unido jamás será vencido! blends stylistic diversity with intense emotional expression. As both performer and composer, Ivanov embraces the work’s improvisatory opportunities, particularly before the final thematic restatement. This recording, released as part of the Royal Academy of Music Bicentenary Series, showcases his technical mastery, interpretive insight, and affinity for contemporary repertoire.

Frederic Rzewski (1938–2021), born in Westfield, Massachusetts, was a pioneering composer and pianist known for his innovative approaches to contemporary music. He studied with Charles Mackey, Walter Piston, Roger Sessions, and Milton Babbitt at Harvard and Princeton, and later with Luigi Dallapiccola in Italy, where he also performed with flutist Severino Gazzelloni. Influenced by early friendships with Christian Wolff, David Behrman, John Cage, and David Tudor, Rzewski developed a distinctive voice in both composition and performance. In the mid-1960s, he co-founded the experimental group MEV (Musica Elettronica Viva) in Rome, exploring live electronics and improvisation. From 1977, he served as Professor of Composition at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique in Liège, Belgium.

Emanuil Ivanov, born in 1998 in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria, is an internationally acclaimed pianist who gained global recognition after winning First Prize at the 2019 Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition. Beginning piano studies at age seven, he trained with Galina Daskalova and later with Atanas Kurtev, and currently studies on full scholarship at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire under Pascal Nemirovski and Anthony Hewitt. Ivanov has performed in major concert halls worldwide, including Teatro alla Scala and Herkulessaal Munich, and has appeared with leading orchestras and on international radio. His repertoire spans Bach, Beethoven, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Gershwin, and lesser-known works, including Ferruccio Busoni’s Piano Concerto. He has won numerous international prizes and recorded albums for Naxos, demonstrating both virtuosic skill and interpretive depth.

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