Four Apparitions

Description

Piano — The Four Apparitions Op. 17 are prefaced by a short Whitman poem — more an epigram — called “Apparitions,” from which I borrowed my own title.xa0 (There is also a set of wonderfully strange Liszt piano pieces by the same name).xa0 the poem reads as follows: “A Vague mist hanging ‘round these pages:/(Sometimes how strange and clear to the soul,/That all these solid things are indeed but apparitions, concepts, non-realities).”xa0 Whitman’s modest little poem in all its brevity evokes all sorts of questions concerning the relationship between form, matter and idea, and as such is particularly well-suited as a commentary on abstract music.xa0 the four Apparitions were written for and dedicated to David Korevaar, who gave them their first performance at Merkin Concert Hall, New York City in 1987 and recorded them for the Musical Heritage Society label.xa0 The four pieces are meant to be performed as a set and contain subtle rhythmic and motivic ideas which link them together. The Four Apparitions have been recorded by David Korevaar for Music Heritage Society and by Christina Petrowska for JLH Lasersound.