compositions
compositions
FANTASY for VIOLIN and PIANO
- excerpt
Violin: Mayumi Seiler
Piano: Walter Delahunt
Duration: 15 minutes
Written: 2002
Premiered: July 29, 2002
Ottawa, Canada
Ottawa, Canada
- Violin
- Piano
Background
Fantasy is designed in one movement, which breaks into three sections played without interruption. The opening section sets up the drama of the work. Two contrasting themes, like two characters, simultaneously enter the “stage”. The piano introduces a tonal presence locked within a 12-tone set. The violin presents a chromatic melody full of grace and charm. Soon a “protagonist” enters, with motivic designs based on open intervals. This scene, approximately 6 minutes in duration, full of contrasting turns, energy and incessant movement, presents the initial conflict and dramatic resolution of the composition. At times lyrical, at times playful and yet at other times full of anxiety and intensity, in its overall character it portrays the struggles and disagreements of the main characters. In closing, it gives way to a tentative second section, and, simultaneously, it sets up the appearance of the concluding section.
The second section, approximately 2 minutes in duration, acts both as a coda of the first section, and an interlude to the third one.
The concluding section sees the piano in a rather supportive role, while the violin dominates. The music, built on the material introduced in the first section, is rather subdued and it evolves slowly, gradually triggering the events that follow. There are traces of the Polish folklore in it. The piano and the violin work together without the continuous struggle present in the opening section. The “characters” know their place within the overall drama and come into contact with each other with a degree of understanding and tolerance. Only once they rise to a point of considerable tension – at the climax of the section.
This 7 minute scene seems like a logical answer to the questions posed in the opening section.
Fantasy employs a range of colours in both the piano and the violin. It calls for a considerable degree of virtuosity in both instruments. It confronts the listener with a wide dramatic spectrum – from a gentle touch in the soft lyrical passages, to thunderous fortes in the climactic settings.
Press
"The Fantasy for Violin and Piano is perhaps as fine a work as I've heard from Koprowski... It is a powerful work, atonal yet lyrical, intellectually rigorous, yet direct in its appeal."