Fantastic modernist piece, with colors that reminds one of machines, of Hollywood, and of fairy tales (often with a grim or sarcastic tone). It starts of with a beautiful Russian folk tune, and from that emerges a sound narrative that no one could predict, full of unexpected turns, in a balance between incomparable excitement and pristine beauty. Perhaps one of the greatest piano concertos of the 20th century. 

I play the solo part, and Carlos Hernandez conducts the wonderful Ball State Symphonic Orchestra.

By the way, often this quote is attributed to Prokofiev: “there are still many beautiful things to be said in C major”. Whether he said or not, this Concerto definitely attests to the truth of the statement.

Prokofiev - Piano Concerto n. 3, mov. 1

Preludes for Piano

Prelude 3. Indecisive Impressions

Series of thoughts on a snowy and almost desolate landscape. (From old tapes: the sound quality is very modest.)

Snowscapes: Nº1 Introduction, Solitude.

A long slow somnambulistic violin with some background sounds for added relaxation.

Dream's edge(flight of fantasy)

SIMPLICITY ITSELF (from Two Pieces for Cello and Piano) 

The majority of this work was composed without the aid of any instrument, sitting amid the grounds of the Dame Eadith Walker Estate, Concord while my late and beloved mother was receiving dialysis treatment. I knew at the time she had not all that long left to live.

If I am permitted to have a favourite work of my own, this would be one of but a select few pieces I have composed across the forty plus years of my creative life.

The cellist in this performance is Minah Choe, with Jeanell Carrigan at the piano.

Minah Choe was born in Seoul, Korea and began her studies at the age of 8. She graduated with Bachelor of Music with First Class of Honors from the Sydney Conservatorium where she was admitted whilst at high school and received scholarships throughout her studies. She was a full scholarship holder at the Australian National Academy of Music in 2002. In 2004 Minah received master's degree from the Indiana University Jacob’s School of Music under the guidance of Prof. Janos Starker and continued with doctoral degree as his teaching assistant at IU. Currently Minah is pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the Sydney Conservatorium while working as a freelance cellist in major orchestras and performing widely in various chamber music concerts and recitals. ​Minah has appeared as a soloist with several orchestras including Sydney Symphony, Christchurch Symphony, Nizhny-Novgrod Philharmonic, Indiana Univeristy Philharmonic, Bloomington Camerata, Sydney Conservatorium Chamber, and Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic, the Beecroft orchestras, and Melbourne String Ensemble. Minah has won numerous awards including “Most Promising Performer” in 4th Adam International Cello Competition, Australian Postgraduate Award, inaugural Janos Starker Scholarship, Dorothy Fraser Scholarship and Australian University of Women Federation Commemorative Fellowship. ﻿Minah is passionate about teaching cello. She was a tutor at AYO Young Symphonists in 2010 and tutor at the Riverina Summer School for Strings in 2013. This year, Minah teaches at the Sydney Conservatorium and the Conservatorium High School and has commenced working as a Music Co-ordinator of the ​Australian Korean Classical Association.﻿Minah plays a cello by Joseph Hel (1869).

Dr Jeanell Carrigan is presently an Associate Professor in Collaborative Piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney. She has performed as a soloist, chamber musician and accompanist in Germany, Italy, Austria, Switzerland and throughout Australia, and has recorded for the Bavarian Radio Corporation, the ABC and for regional stations in Australia on many occasions. She holds a Doctor of Creative Arts in the area of Australian post-1970 solo piano repertoire and in May, 2016 released her seventeenth solo compact disc of Australian piano music. She is passionate about promoting Australian Music particularly the piano music of Australian women composers. In a review of the CD A Little Variation, composer Houston Dunleavy said “This recording is one to add to the list of treasures of Australian music that seem to be growing by the year. Surely Jeanell Carrigan belongs in this category as well. Australian music has a great champion in Carrigan’s fine playing and scholarship. She deserves far wide recognition for the quality of her work.” (Music Trust 1/4/15)

Recorded in August/ September 2017 in Verbrugghen Hall at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

The piano was the Fazioli concert grand tuned and maintained by David Kinney.

Recording engineer: David Kim Boyle.

Simplicity Itself (cello and piano)

1st movement


“Resounding through all the notes
In the earth's colorful dream
There sounds a faint long-drawn note
For the one who listens in secret.”

...

“Take, then, these songs,
That I to you, beloved, sang”

You can tell by the quotations Schumann used in his Fantasie, op. 17, that it is a very passionate - yet lyrical and vulnerable - work. 

Its main extra-musical themes are his passion/love for Clara Schumann, his admiration for Beethoven, and the mysterious note and listener of the first quotation. But those are all so impregnated in the music that they barely fit the “extra-musical” label. The magic of Robert Schumann of making literature become music, and music become literature.

Schumann - Fantasie op. 17, I. Durchaus phantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen.

I'm going to make some remakes of the old versions, and this is one of them
https://soundcloud.com/user-441019026/invitation

Invitation (remix)

Davidsbündlertänze, Dances of the League of David, Op. 6, is a set of eighteen pieces for piano composed in 1837 by Robert Schumann.

Simplicity Itself (cello and piano)

Phillip Wilcher