Joshua Rupley, Piano

C. René Hirschfeld - Music for piano solo

The composer writes about his new work: "I worked on Musik für Piano solo in 2017 and 2019. If one wishes to find an extramusical theme in the piece, it could be described as evanescence, or the coming to be, change, and passing of all phenomena. One can find this theme on various levels: in the overarching structure of the work's seven movements, in each movement itself, and in the individual musical forms. The fi rst and final movements play unique roles in the piece. In the first movement, the ground is prepared, so to speak – the potential introduced, from which all the later musical material is born.
This takes place through the establishment of a root-note-based compositional style by means of a descending and ascending (inverted) overtone series. Beginning in the second movement, the work is systematically modal. In the final movement, after a number of reminiscences of the previous movements, everything dissolves and passes away. But this passing away is nothing negative; instead, it is only a return to the initial silence before the music all began.
The modes which form the tonal foundation of each movement were developed by associating kinetic functions to each individual note of the mode. That can mean that certain scales have different notes which ascending as when descending; primary and secondary notes are clearly defined as such, etc. The work requires – aside from considerable virtuosic technique – a highly developed sense of sound in the quietest registers and the courage to maintain utter calmness in the still passages.
The movements are titled as follows: Extremely slow - Broad, but with emphasis - Very agitated, urgent - Joyous, with luster - Clear, speaking - Open, with space.
The world premiere took place on June 4th, 2023 at the Festival KlangArt Vision in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The pianist was Joshua Rupley. In the first part of the concert, he performed Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata inB flat major, Op. 106.
When I met Joshua Rupley for a first rehearsal almost 3 months before the world premiere of Musik für Piano solo, I knew after only a few measures that the work was in good hands. Even in the first phases of his learning the piece, I felt not only that he had structurally permeated the work, but also that he was at home in the musical elements which are so crucial for interpreting this cycle: it requires a sensitive and subtle quality of sound, an intelligently poetic understanding, and access to the spiritual level of the music.
In later performances of the work, including one in the legendary concert series on the Liszt Piano in Sondershausen Castle (an 1875 Bösendorfer grand), I was able to observe how lively Joshua Rupley‘s art of interpretation is, always fed by curiosity and the desire to delve even deeper and with more nuance. As a composer, I am pleased that the premiering pianist was also first to record the work, and that on such a wonderful instrument as the F278 by Fazioli."

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