condition (record/cover): NM / NM

The third instalment of George Crumb's Makrokosmos series, Music For A Summer Evening (1974) is scored for two amplified pianos and two percussionists - a larger and more spacious canvas than the solo piano volumes that preceded it. Where Makrokosmos I and II explored the sonic possibilities of a single prepared and amplified piano in isolation, this third volume opens the music into a richer dialogue of textures and timbres, the percussion ensemble (including bowed crotales, crystal glasses, and tam-tams) extending the piano's range into near-inaudibility at one extreme and sharp percussive attack at the other. Crumb's characteristic blend of notational precision and evocative image - movements with titles like "Myth", "The Advent", "Hymn For The Nativity Of The Star-Child" - creates a music that is simultaneously rigorous and mysteriously affecting.