Chamber Music Piano
SKU: PR.110418490
Composed by Carter Pann.
16 pages. Duration 16
minutes. Theodore Presser
Company #110-41849.
Published by Theodore
Presser Company
(PR.110418490).
ISBN
9781491137260. UPC:
680160690022.
Carte
r Pann writes, the piece
might have been titled
Three Improvisations, but
there is an expressive
inertia baked in to these
works which makes them
truer as rhapsodies. This
description tells us much
about the work, whose
movements are an
enterprising tango, a
bombastic central
movement with virtuosic
thrust, and a and a hymn
heard from afar without
any sense of marked
time.
Three Rhapsodies
was commissioned by the
American Composers Forum
with complete support
from the Thelma E. Hunter
Fund. The premiere
performance took place in
Kilbourn Hall at the
Eastman School of Music
in Rochester, New York by
pianist Marina Lomazov.As
with all of my piano
works, this was very much
an at-the-piano
compositional experience.
As a pianist I cannot
imagine writing a solo
work away from the
instrument (though at
times that would be quite
convenient).The whole
work explores a palette
of impassioned emotions
– sometimes
veiled, sometimes
emboldened, or even
outrageous at times.
There are technical
freedoms in each
movement, allowing the
pianist to stretch their
interpretive inclinations
to great lengths. In this
way the piece might have
been titled Three
Improvisations, but there
is an expressive inertia
baked in to these works
which make them truer as
rhapsodies.The first
movement is a tango with
real wanderlust. The
second reminds me of
Rachmaninoff’s
Polka de W.R. in its
bombast, but also
Chopin’s sixteenth
prelude with its sheer
virtuosic thrust. The
third is a hymn heard
from afar with no
rhythmic drive, only
sheened sonority.
