A depiction of Arthur Rimbaud's poem "Aube" [Dawn].
David Ordovsky, Michelle Stockman, Gloria Yun, Minjee Kim - Flutes

Recorded in 2013 at Oktaven Studios

Hommage A Rimbaud

Pastorale for Piano, Pfitzner Variations
(1980) 

The “Pastorale: is one of five piano pieces that I initially conceived as “Allegorical Pieces,” in the sense of being like tales such as fables or parables, that are told though the medium of other tales. I intended to create new works around passages from the musical repertoire. Of the five pieces, I completed only two, the “Pastorale” and the “Pfitzner Variations.”

In the “Pastorale,” the opening of Hindemith’s Sonata for Viola and Piano Op. 11 with its
solemn piano chords lends its colour to this meditation; the manner of the many
returns of its principal phrase reminds me a little of Schumann’s 4th Symphony and A minor Violin Sonata, in which an ominous phrase keeps emerging – as if unwelcome – from the depths.

Haodong Wu, piano; recorded at Oktaven Studios, NY; 3-22-24 


The “Pfitzner Variations,” which rework the thematic material of the Prelude to the 1st Act of Pfitzner’s  opera “Palestrina,” would not merit inclusion in this category, were they no more than a standard set of variations.The material itself has been tonally manipulated away from Pfitzner’s modal shaping of it and given a more chromatic, late-tonal, cast, and as a result, the variations that follow must navigate unpredictable and somewhat alien terrain.

Haodong Wu, piano; recorded at Oktaven Studios, NY; 7-30-24 




PFITZNER VARIATIONS for Piano

Sonata No. 1 for Piano (1967)
Allegro moderato
Andante 
Allegro

Performed by the composer (1967)

PFITZNER VARIATIONS for Piano

Robert Cuckson

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