Orchestra Piano
SKU:
PR.11641861SP
Composed by William
Kraft. Part. 35 pages.
Duration 21 minutes.
Theodore Presser Company
#116-41861SP. Published
by Theodore Presser
Company (PR.11641861SP).
UPC:
680160685202.
What?
! - my composer
colleagues said - A
concerto for the piano?
It's a 19th century
instrument! Admittedly we
are in an age when
originally created
timbres and/or
musico-technological
formulations are often
the modus operandi of a
piece. Actually, this
Concerto began about two
years ago when, during
one of my creative jogs,
the sound of the
uppermost register of the
piano mingled with wind
chimes penetrated my
inner ear. The challenge
and fascination of
exploring and developing
this idea into an
orchestral situation
determined that some day
soon I would be writing a
work for piano and
orchestra. So it was a
very happy coincidence
when Mona Golabek phoned
to tell me she would like
discuss the Ford
Foundation commission.
After covering areas of
aesthetics and
compositional styles, we
found that we had a good
working rapport, and she
asked if I would accept
the commission. The
answer was obvious. Then
began the intensive
thought process on the
stylistic essence and
organization of the work.
Along with this went a
renewed study of
idiomatic writing for the
piano, of the kind
Stravinsky undertook with
the violin when he began
his Violin Concerto. By a
stroke of great fortune,
the day in February 1972
that I received official
notice from the Ford
Foundation of the
commission, I also
received a letter from
the Guggenheim Foundation
informing me I had been
awarded my second
fellowship. With the good
graces of Zubin Mehta and
Ernest Fleischmann,
masters of my destiny as
a member of the Los
Angeles Philharmonic, I
was relieved of my
orchestral duties during
the Hollywood Bowl
season. Thus I was able
to go to Europe to work
and to view the latest
trends in music
concentrating in London
(the current musical
melting pot and showcase
par excellence), Oslo,
Norway, for the Festival
of Scandinavian Music
called Nordic Days, and
Warsaw, Poland, for its
prestigious Autumn
Festival. Over half the
Concerto was completed in
that summer and most of
the rest during the 72-73
season with the final
touches put on during a
month as Resident Scholar
at the Rockefeller
Foundation's Villa
Serbelloni in Bellagio,
Italy. So much for the
external and
environmental influences,
except perhaps to mention
the birds of Sussex in
the first movement, the
bells of Arhus (Denmark)
in the second movement
and the bells of Bellagio
at the end of the
Concerto. Primary in the
conception was the
personality of Miss
Golabek: she is a
wonderfully vital and
dynamic person and a real
virtuoso. Therefore, the
soloist in the Concerto
is truly the protagonist;
it is she (for once we
can do away with the
generic he) who unfolds
the character and intent
of the piece. The first
section is constructed in
the manner of a
recitative - completely
unmeasured - with letters
and numbers by which the
conductor signals the
orchestra for its
participation. This
allows the soloist the
freedom to interpret the
patterns and control the
flow and development of
the music. The Concerto
is actually in one
continuous movement but
with three large
divisions of sufficiently
contrasting character to
be called movements in
themselves. The first
'movement' is based on a
few timbral elements: 1)
a cluster of very low
pitches which at the
beginning are practically
inaudibly depressed, and
sustained silently by the
sostenuto pedal, which
causes sympathetic
vibrating pitches to ring
when strong notes are
struck; 2) a single
powerful note indicated
by a black note-head with
a line through it
indicating the strongest
possible sforzando; 3)
short figures of various
colors sometimes ominous,
sometimes as splashes of
light or as elements of
transition; 4) trills and
tremolos which are the
actual controlling
organic thread starting
as single axial tremolos
and gradually expanding
to trills of increasingly
larger and more powerful
scope. The 'movement'
begins in quiescent
repose but unceasingly
grows in energy and
tension as the stretching
of a string or rubber
band. When it can no
longer be restrained, it
bursts into the next
section. The second
'movement,' propelled by
the released tension, is
a brilliant virtuosic
display, which begins
with a long solo of wispy
percussion, later joined
in duet with the piano.
Not to be ignored, the
orchestra takes over
shooting the material
throughout all its
sections like a small
agile bird deftly
maneuvering through
nothing but air, while
the piano counterposes
moments of lyricism. The
orchestra reaches a
climax, thrusting us into
the third 'movement'
which begins with a
cadenza-like section for
the piano. This moves
gently into an expressive
section (expressive is
not a negative term to
me) in which duets are
formed with various
instruments. There are
fleeting glimpses of
remembrances past, as a
fragmented
recapitulation. One
glimpse is hazily
expressed by strings and
percussion in a moment of
simultaneous contrasting
levels of activity, a
technique of which I have
been fond and have
utilized in various
fixed-free relationships,
particularly in my
Percussion Concerto,
Contextures and Games:
Collage No. 1. The second
half of the third
'movement; is a large
coda - akin to those in
Beethoven - which brings
about another display of
virtuosity, this time
gutsy and driving,
raising the Concerto to a
final climax, the soloist
completing the fragmented
recapitulation concept as
well as the work with the
single-note sforzando and
low cluster from the very
opening of the first
movement.
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