The 5th volume from NYC's The Kitchen performance center focuses on piano music from performers Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Charlemagne Palestine, Anthony Davis, Harold Budd, and Dennis Russel Davies. Pianos in The Kitchen brings together select concert recordings of solo piano works performed at The Kitchen from 1976 through 1983, including works from the 1976 Bösendorfer Festival and the 1983 series of benefit concerts that supported the purchase of a new Steinway Baby Grand piano for the institution. Featured are names familiar to The Kitchen’s history such as Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Charlemagne Palestine, and Anthony Davis as well as performers/composers Harold Budd and Dennis Russell Davies, who have enjoyed important careers, but are not necessarily associated with The Kitchen’s programming. This CD covers a range of genres, from jazz to classical to new music. All of the recordings document performances in which the piano–the instrument most central to the development of Western music–is played, explored, and extended. There is a notable immediacy and intimacy about each performance in this compilation, stemming perhaps from the nature of live recordings and the strength of the piano as a large organic, vibrant instrument. When listening to these recordings, you may feel an almost physical sense of closeness, aware of the performers’ breath and their hands, the reach towards new gestures beyond the academy.