Marc Yeats: The Anatomy of Melancholy

Marc Yeats is a composer and visual artist who enjoys great recognition in the U.K. Here he entrusts to the excellent pianist Ian Pace the task of performing his works for piano, which are reputed to be very difficult – even unplayable. The pianist takes up the challenge with aplomb, skillfully coaxing out of the chaos the different voices that populate these dense scores, which are in line with the work of Ferneyhough and Ligeti (The Viciousness of Circles recalls the famous Etude No. 13 The Devil’s Staircase). Although not devoid of sensuality, Yeats’ music consistently combines a complex relationship to time, extreme virtuosity, and obsessive manipulation of the material.