Frederic Rzewski's 'The People United Will Never Be Defeated' Revisited

A blog post on minusplato.com revisits Frederic Rzewski's monumental piano work 'The People United Will Never Be Defeated', composed in 1975 and premiered on February 7, 1976, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. The piece, commissioned by pianist Ursula Oppens, consists of 36 variations in six sets, inspired by the 1973 Chilean coup that deposed Salvador Allende and installed Augusto Pinochet. Rzewski's composition is based on a song by Chilean composer Sergio Ortega, written in 1973 with lyrics by the group Quilapayún, who recorded it as part of the Nueva Canción Chilena movement. After the coup, the song was also popularized by Inti-Illimani, who found refuge in Italy, while Ortega and Quilapayún settled in France. The work incorporates quotations from 'Bandiera Rossa' and 'Solidarity Song' (by Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler). Oppens made a Grammy-nominated recording in 1979, and Rzewski himself recorded the piece four times (1977, 1990, 1999, 2007). The post argues that the piece has entered the virtuoso repertoire, ensuring that the atrocities of the Pinochet regime are recalled at each performance.