Concert: An Afternoon of World Premieres
When: Wednesday, October 13, 2010, 12:00pm Noon
Where:Lefrak Concert Hall, Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, 6530 Kissena Blvd., Flushing, NY 11354 Tel-718-793-8080
Info: Featuring duo Stephanie and Saar – Music for Two Pianos
Composers: Paul Hefner, Jay Anthony Gach (Co-Mgrs.) Rob Schwimmer, Henry Martin, Herbert A. Deutsch, Ed Smaldone and John Adams.
On this occasion they will perform Herbert Deutsch’s Raga Marva, a contemporary reinterpretation of the Indian raga, Jay Gach’s Mano a Mano, a two piano metaphor of combat, the jazz-informed Maria by Moonlight by Paul Hefner’s, which is based on the chord structures of “Stella by Starlight,” with new melody and development by the composer, and Henry Martin’s Son la Pia, the literary theme of which is taken from Dante’s Purgatorio where a soul describes her husband murdering her. Reflecting the influence of Chopin are Rob Schwimmer’s CcHhOoPpIiNn NnIiPpOoHhCc, and Edward Smaldone’s Transformational Etudes. Schwimmer’s work is a psychedelic brain (and finger) twister that involves delaying one hand’s start of that which was in unison in the last movement of Chopin’s Piano Sonata #2 by one note as well as the same process worked on a symmetrical version for the second piano. The opening movement of the Smaldone work (which is repeated as the epilogue to the set) is a contemporary interpretation of Chopin’s Op. 10 No. 1. However, all of its movements are based on a series of semi-abstract paintings by Irving Abram. The preceding works of Long Island Composer Alliance composers are all world premieres. Also on the program is the exuberant Hallelujah Junction by Pulitzer-prize winning composer John Adams.