Alternative Facts – Review

Unremittingly edgy, American composer Bruce Babcock’s 2019 Alternative Facts for Solo Piano captures, through pianistic devices of virtuosic clarity and torturous rhythmic schizophrenia, American angst since Donald Trump’s surprising ascension to the presidency in 2016. Performed by Grammy and Emmy winner Gloria Cheng, Babcock captures the nerve-shredding yin and yang of a democracy on the edge.