Friday Afternoon Musicale: Before & After, James Iman Piano Concert
Join Chatham University’s Music Program for the first Friday Afternoon Musicale of the fall semester, September 15th at 4:00 PM at the James Laughlin Music Center! The concert will feature James Iman playing works by Kaija Saariaho, Anne Boyd, Donald Martino, and Jenny Back on the piano. The title of the concert is “Before & After” and is reflective of the nature of the pieces that will be showcased. All of the local community is welcome and invited to attend this program!
Kaija Saariaho (1952-2023) hit her stride after attending the Darmstadt Summer Courses for New Music, where she studied with Spectral composers Tristan Murail and Gerard Grisey. Spectralism provided her with a method that freed her from serialism and sparked her creativity. She has left behind a legacy of beautiful and profound work, of which this prelude is among her few piano compositions.
Anne Boyd (b.1946) is an Australian composer inspired by the wilderness of her childhood and the music of East Asia. The work featured on this program is inspired by Debussy’s Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut from his Images II, which was in turn inspired by the Gamelan music he heard at the Paris World’s Fair. Using only four notes from Debussy’s original composition, Boyd weaves a tapestry that is static and contemplative.
Donald Martino (1931-2005) began his musical career as a jazz clarinetist, soon finding his way to composing, and eventually he took up twelve-tone composition. These preludes are his last large-scale composition for piano, and build off of ideas he had explored in his Fantasies and Impromptus. Each prelude is short and explores one idea, yet they are dynamic in their mood.
Jenny Beck (b.1985) is a composer who explores time as a special dimension (which is especially true of her recent work). The pieces which make up Stand Still Here are each a reflection on a paragraph from Virgina Wolff’s To the Lighthouse. These are also deeply contemplative works and are at time brooding, while at other times shimmering. They have a size far larger than their duration.