Blog No. 31: Piano Concerto

When Analiett Presno Rodriguez became the first champion of my work, I was thrilled beyond measure.

When Claudia Peñalver, bassoonist wrote that

she feels telepathically connected with me…

When Heikos Miguel González Muñoz wrote “I “needed that role.”

My heart fills with their connection to and understanding of me.

In the recent year, I have had the good fortune to work with many people with whom I feel a deep sense of kinship, musically, philosophically, intellectually, personally… even though most of them I have never met, many in different states, different countries, different continents.

To say this is the first period in my life with so much connection to others is a vast understatement. On some level, I have always craved this.

Paula Suarez Quijano has recorded The Beth Variations (solo piano/ballet version with Heiko’s wonderful choreography and dancing). With Maray Viyella Clausell, Paula recorded Mediation for Clarinet & Piano as well as Inscape No. 1, both written in my teenage years.

Paula will record Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2 this fall.

Her interest and understanding of my work. in addition to her personal warmth, have inspired me to write us a piano concerto. (The first draft was completed moments ago.)

Like most of writing from the recent seven years, Piano Concerto pays homage to some of the masters from whom I endeavor to learn.

Piano Concerto is an approach to the coda of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4, Mov. I, by way of Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 and Bartok’s Piano Concerto No. 1.

As more than one person has told me, they hear echoes of

Rimsky-Korsakov, Bernstein, Copland, Barber, Shostakovich ….I hope there may be some truth in the old saying, which I first heard from my adult son: Good composers borrow… those who steal from the best have the possibility of joining their ranks.

My dad listened to Brahms' Piano Concertos with me on our porch in the Jewish Alps.