The People United Will Never Be Defeated New York Performances

Frederic Rzewski’s *The People United Will Never Be Defeated* began as a 1970s piano work: 36 variations built from a Chilean protest song associated with collective resistance and political memory. Now heard at David Geffen Hall in a new orchestration conducted by Gustavo Dudamel with the New York Philharmonic, it shifts from a solitary instrument to a civic-scale sound. In New York, where concert halls often serve as public forums, the piece lands as both composition and document. Its rigor makes the message harder to sentimentalize.