Preludium (2021) is a virtuosic toccata filled with dazzling rapid-fired binary hand-over-hand
motion. A restless, searching theme starts out in both hands, looking for a place to land
but exploding into sparks. The third time it reaches out it lands in a swirling pool of
sextuplets that finally leads into the first regular pulse of the piece with driving
arpeggios. Like a horse out of the gate it takes off, building all over the piano. The
searching theme returns in a different key, and again leads to the pulsing, racing music.
A new climax builds, with joyous, rapturous clangorous chords pouncing all over the
keyboard. A suddenly whispering version of the searching theme builds again,
exploding again into a shower of sparks, and this time the swirling music carries us high
into the ether, down into a dreamlike alternate reality version of the racing, pulsing
music that fades off, the arpeggios shrinking in on themselves - six notes, then five,
four, three, until it’s just two notes racing. They swoosh up, and a final triumphant chord
carries us away.
Preludium (2021) is a virtuosic toccata filled with dazzling rapid-fired binary hand-over-hand
motion. A restless, searching theme starts out in both hands, looking for a place to land
but exploding into sparks. The third time it reaches out it lands in a swirling pool of
sextuplets that finally leads into the first regular pulse of the piece with driving
arpeggios. Like a horse out of the gate it takes off, building all over the piano. The
searching theme returns in a different key, and again leads to the pulsing, racing music.
A new climax builds, with joyous, rapturous clangorous chords pouncing all over the
keyboard. A suddenly whispering version of the searching theme builds again,
exploding again into a shower of sparks, and this time the swirling music carries us high
into the ether, down into a dreamlike alternate reality version of the racing, pulsing
music that fades off, the arpeggios shrinking in on themselves - six notes, then five,
four, three, until it’s just two notes racing. They swoosh up, and a final triumphant chord
carries us away.
