Your Piano is My Forte

About

One of the most striking and memorable pieces performed at the International Computer Music Conference in Glasgow in 1990 was Haiku by the American composer Stephen Montague. Striking because of its extremely soft and delicate sonic fabric. Memorable because the impact of this piece amongst a programme of somewhat aggressive pieces could still be felt a year later. Haiku had such an effect on me that I became determined to compose a soft delicate concerto for piano and chamber orchestra in response.

Another source of inspiration came from listening to the gentle murmuring of wavelets breaking on a sandy beach in the early hours of an autumn morning. This wave-like sound is heard at the beginning of the work.

The orchestra is employed mainly for colouring the resonance of the piano which in turn features gentle arabesques of sounds some of which are similar to those heard in my set of five piano pieces of 1978, For the Kokako. The musical contrasts between the solo instrument and the ensemble provide the concertante elements. However there are none of the dramatic exchanges of material between soloist and orchestra that are found normally in a concerto. The strength of the work comes in the sustained delicate textures helped considerably by the performers ability to play softly. One crescendo only appears about two thirds of the way through and it is used simply to highlight the ensuing pianissimo.

Your Piano is My Forte was composed for Tamas Vesmas and the Auckland Sinfonietta and first performed at the NZI Convention Hall, Aotea Centre, Auckland, 13 October 1991.

The work was commissioned with funding provided by the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand and the New Zealand Composers Foundation Ltd.