"For the most daring listener on your shopping list, consider ""Michael Hersch: The Sudden Pianist,"" a documentary by Baltimore filmmaker Richard Anderson released on DVD by Innova. Hersch, who teaches at Peabody, is a composer with a challenging, even astonishing style encompassing extremes of volume, range and texture. The film focuses on his embrace of the piano as means of expression. There are performances of his epic ""The Vanishing Pavilions"" on the DVD and a bonus CD."
{}