Program Note:   

The first movement, Alla danza tedesca, is a traditional sonata allegro movement featuring two contrasting themes. The first is an essay in alternating groups of three and four. Either it is an ancient courtly dance, or a game of chess three thousand years ago. The second theme is a brassy, long-lined heraldic fanfare around which purl wreathes of running thirty-second notes. The development section culminates in the second theme’s transformation into an accompaniment figure, over which the cello plays a lyrical fragment from one of my operas. The recapitulation takes us back to the ancient world of the first theme.

The second movement, Tempo di ‘Gymnopédie, returns to the imaginary ancient world; it explores a repeated ground base, over which a sad little Pierrot-esque tune unfolds several times before ending quizzically.

The third movement, Allegro assai is a nasty, thuggish, technically challenging little rondo in which a synthetic scale-based set of conflicting ostinati are cross-cut with an unhinged, obsessively modulating chorale. I imagine it taking place in a narcissist’s rifled, empty tomb.

The finale, Moderato con moto, takes place not in an ancient or abstract world but in the comforting / yearning / emotionally lurid world of my youth in 1970s suburbia. The sonata is dedicated to my admired friends, violoncellist Sarah Kapps and pianist Peter Marshall. It was commissioned by, and was premièred by the duo, as part of the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival in Wintergreen, Virginia, in July 2017.