Concertino for piano and strings

About

The original commission for this piece (in 1999) required me to write for amateur string group (Nova Strings in Lower Hutt) with a professional pianist (Xenia Pestov). In order to make full use of the extreme contrast between the resources I choose to have the strings played by the Bach Chorale Es ist genug, initially very slowly and gradually accelerating to become more audible, while the pianist plays completely different and more demanding music. The two elements do merge occasionally.

In a sense, the contrast implies a worldly, energetic and striving individual against a 'spiritual' background. I suppose it could be considered an extension of Charles Ives' The Unanswered Question but without the question.