A collection of works in which mostly I play the piano. Most works are mine, a few are others playing my piano works, some are classical tunes, others "influenced" by many things. Mostly live performances, some works have some electronics, some are "pure" acoustic. I love playing the piano, and sincerely hope you find some joy listening. Thanks for your time and focus.


Piano Music

2024 08 19 [rvrb] This was the first time I improvised for a minute with the new action in the new (for me) 1977 Mason & Hamlin BB did I say new? new
This was just my phone, sitting above the keys facing me. I added a tiny bit of reverb. When I put some good mics on, that bass will be super warm and yummy.

Worthiness

This is v2.4 of the solo piano work "The Machines won..." commissioned by the Rivers School Conservatory for 2017. The level is early intermediate, and it does not stretch more than a ninth for the hand. It will be premiered in their new music festival, I believe, in April. More details soon. Score is available after the premiere. This is a terrible MIDI recording of FINALE barfing out the notes, so please remember that as you listen!

The Machines Won (v2.4) Finale MIDI realization

A dream I had, this is a very very rough representation of the sounds I heard, and the way it looked. There is a YouTube Vid of this as well you can see, just click on the "Track Video" button above this text, and it will take you to YouTube...but please come back after!  
:-)

 Score will be available soon on Lulu soon

Incision

Alexander Skriabine's amazing and exhausting masterpiece "Vers la Flamme" Op.72 (towards the flame, into the flame). Starts out with a very quiet and distant theme which is unsettled, and is constantly shifting, never quite sure of its final resolution. His unique tonality gives this work a forward motion, even though its extremely placid in the beginning. As the work begins to have motion and flow, he creates a rippling effect with the Right hand playing in an uneven 9 (8th notes) while the left hand is doing an uneven 5 (quarter notes). The piece gains energy and focus as it begins to literally "tremble" and it continues all the way to the end in a giant climactic cadence that burns up (and the poor pianist is probably nearing muscle-failure at this point). Live performance of mine in Hungary years ago.

Skriabin: Vers La Flamme, Op. 72 (live performance)

from a live concert: Bach's Baroque Blender II 
(acoustic and electronic mash-ups of Bach 2-Part Inventions.
Alphonse Izzo is playing the guitar at the middle-end.

(terrible audio quality warning, SORRY!)

In this work, I took the 10th invention ("Olde Tuun/PinballMIX..1"), turned it upside-down, re-keyed it, and re-composed it for guitar and piano adding substantial connective-tissue between each Bach note, and then had a second section in which the 2 instruments "pinball" through their parts to the end. The result was a work that changed faces radically- yet still felt as if it came from the same genetic "father". It can be performed with any other instrument and piano. 

This is here purely as an audio example to accompany the score for those interested in performing this work.
The score will be available soon at www.lulu.com

OldeTuunPINBALLmix (live)

translates roughly from Haungarian to “Rattling Rock in a Beer Mug” or "Pebble Playing in a Pot". Written in 1978.
I first heard this beautiful piece one night at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary. My teacher Szokolay Balázs was performing it, and I was turning pages. I instantly knew I had to play it. Its a minimalist work that uses a pure and simple additive and subtractive process with retrogrades and inversions. The harmonic content is limited to six pitches (technically 5, becuase both hands play a C#), three notes per hand, and the score is a bit like reading graph paper. 

Its wonderfully fun and requires a lot of concentration to play. It is simple, quite beautiful, and trance inducing. This recording is live at a New Haven Worx concert (now known as “SOUNDunderGROUND”), at the Neighborhood Music School’s Recital Hall in New Haven, CT. Please let me know what you think, and thanks for stopping by!
:-)

Kotyogó Kő Egy Korsóban (by László Sáry)

In 1988, I finished this work in a Budapest cafe. A friend of mine looked at it and said "Somewhere between Phrena and Somnolens, Coleopters pray on the edge of nowhere". That became the "subtitle". This is an ANCIENT recording of a VERY early semi-serial work I wrote and performed in Hungary for a concert for the American Ambassador to Hungary. Its really not very "mature" but there are many good things in it, and I really like some of the ideas. At that time, it really pushed my compositional senses- since I was trying to reject the 12-tone system (even though the work is "infused" with it secretly) but I felt confused about going back to any kind of "tonality". The obvious influences are Skriabin, Bartok, Stravinsky, Messiaen, and maybe even a little Debussy. This is not the premiere recording, but another  live performance in the USA, the recording quality is pretty bad, so please forgive me. This is really just a musical "curio" from me.

Fantasy 1988

In celebration of the new addition to the DUNGEON:
a 1917 rebuilt Steinway model M.
The very first recorded solo on the Venter Steinway 
(needed tuning- but who cares).

Total Improvisation- but after the fact: realized that the 2nd Dirge theme by Bartok really influenced me (from his Four Dirges Op.9a) as a thematic starting point. Its just more "Sinfonia" than dirge in its rhythms.

1 VisaV (for solo piano)

In celebration of the new addition to the DUNGEON:
a 1917 rebuilt Steinway model M.
The very first recorded solo on the Venter Steinway 
(needed tuning- but who cares).

Total Improvisation- this one I was searching what key the instrument "liked" me to play in- as of yet untuned. Since I really don't know the instrument yet- I was testing various touch/feel/response as well as exploring what color "it" liked. It kept pushing me to "F". Hence the "break-out" moments. There are also some tests of the speed of the keyboard and its sensitivity/responsiveness. But, that was just a part of the music...

2 Fitting (for solo piano)

Third improvisational movement, over three nights, on the new Venter Steinway in the Dungeon.

3 Con - Front (for solo piano)

The final piece which is on the outside of the three impromptus, after.

4 (Postlude)for solo piano

Composer, musician, performer
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To all who drift
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Piano Music

IstvanPeterBRacz