William Bolcom - Piano Quartet

1. Bacarolle/Ketjak

2.  Largo fantastico (Nachtstuck)

3. Intermezzo

4. Marcia risoluto

Jerome Jelinck, cello
Charles Avsharian, violin
David Ireland, viola
Joseph Gurt, piano

This piece seemed prophetic to me of the disaster America was headed in when it was written in the same year as the equally prophetic Piano Concerto, the bicentennial year of 1976,  I heard it as a warning of the catastrophe that 44 years later is coming ever clearer. 

Here is an arrangement of the Concerto for two pianos and percussion I had not known of before.

This arrangement for two pianos and percussion was performed for the composer at the University of Michigan on May 17, 2019.

Melissa Coppola, piano I
Liz Ames, piano II
Danielle Gonzalez, percussion

 "My own ambivalence about my native city, coupled with a general feeling many had that our bicentennial celebration was somewhat spoiled by our recent national troubles, provided the cli­mate out of which the Concerto was to emerge. Thus it is a mixture of irony, humor, and despair.” In the premiere performance of the concerto, he referred to it in the program notes as “one of the bitterest pieces” that he had ever written.
The first movement, Andante spianato - Allegro, refers in form and style more to the piano­-and-orchestra fantasies of the nineteenth century (which eventually led to the Gershwin works in that genre).  Beginning with a contemplative piano solo, the movement leads to a jazzy second theme and quasi­-hallucinatory section in which musical images whiz by. A new slow theme from the piano leads to a ragtime/stride section, culminating in the first piano theme taken up by the full orchestra, and a terse, tragic coda. Regrets, the less tonal second movement, begins with a distant parody of the opening clarinet choir of the Gershwin Concerto in F slow movement, growing toward a piano recitative and an agitated orchestral climax. The opening theme returns, bringing us to an orchestral blues passage, suffused with languor and regret. The Finale is a “quodlibet of national tunes” and an original, pseudo-patriotic theme introduced by the piano, creating a musical montage of American imagery, positive and otherwise. Bolcom writes in the liner notes of the Hyperion recording of the piece, “like the cowboy riding the atomic bomb to his (and the world's) death in the film Dr. Strangelove, the impact of the movement is ridiculous and terrifying at the same time.”

 With our current political climate, I feel similarly conflicted about patriotism, and with the recent SMTD scandals that have made headlines this year, at times I feel similarly conflicted about academia - which you may hear in the cadenza of the third movement. I am honored to have collaborated this year with Liz Ames and Danielle Gonzalez on this work to create an arrangement that I believe stands as a convincing and unique representation of the solo piano-orchestra work.