“Blares Clouds Celebrations” (Piano Concerto No.2) (2006 – 2007) for piano and symphonic orchestra

Performances:
27- 29.10.07 World Premiere with Israel Sinfonietta Beer Sheba,
Conductor – Doron Salomon; Municipal Conservatory of Beer Sheba

Publications: IMI  (Israeli Music Institute)

 

Claude Debussy’s Nocturnes are called “Clouds, Celebrations and Sirens”.
My second Piano Concerto`s sub-title is “Blares, Clouds, Celebrations”.
However, the listener will not find even a faint connection to Debussy’s work other than paraphrasing its title.
The poetic load of the title denotes the disparity between directness of the trumpet blare as the signal of the
gathering, connecting people, and between the somewhat threatening ambiguity of the clouds, as a symbol
of the unknown, the Other.
There is a multitude of ideas and elements that meet each other throughout the work; they intertwine in an intricate
way, without being divided into clear segments of a specific character.
Rather, there is much overlapping and interchanging going on, in the spirit of the simultaneity principle,
which goes back to Charles Ives` compositions.
The roles of soloist vs orchestra are also pretty ambiguous at times – it is not all that obvious which one is the “figure”,
as it were, and which the “background”, to use the Gestalt theory terminology.
At times pianist plays on top of the orchestral background as is customary in the classical piano concerto.
But in the middle part of the work these are various orchestral groups that perform in the foreground, while the pianist
provides a kind of “objective”, “cloudy” and indifferent landscape.
The famous “horn call”, serving as an introduction to the piece, so familiar from the classical heritage of Haydn,
Mozart and Beethoven an on, represents the “blare” element; however it also does not appear in a straightforward fashion.
Surprisingly enough it is assigned to percussion instruments (tubular bells), by the nature of their color thus creating a synthesis
between the two apparent antipodes – between blares and clouds, the clear and the vague, perhaps the masculine and the feminine, if you will.

The work is dedicated to Zmira Lutski, a prolific musicologist, eminent radio personality and an amazing person,
with whom composer has produced dozens of broadcasts on the Israeli National Classical music channel “Kol Hamusika”.
May her memory be blessed.