ADAM SHERKIN (MMus, BMus, Adv.PGDip, A.R.C.T.)

Biography Composer and pianist Adam Sherkin is a dynamic and versatile musician who commands a multi-dimensional approach to performance and composition. Noted for innovative programming and engaging presentation, Sherkin has worked with a considerable amount of ensembles both in capacity of composer and performer. He has appeared in performance at the Four Seasons Centre, the Toronto Centre for the Arts, the Music Gallery, the Glenn Gould Studio, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Covent Garden and the Royal Albert Hall. A native of Toronto, Sherkin undertook early studies with Claire Hoeffler. He later graduated from the Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree. There he studied piano under Boris Lysenko and Marc Durand. Complimentary training included theory and composition with Alexander Rapoport, Svetlana Maksimovic and Jack Behrens. Compositional activities took Sherkin to Buffalo (NY) for the philharmonic’s student symposium. This workshop evolved a new piece for symphony orchestra, Terra Incognita, which was later revised and premiered under the baton of Alain Trudel with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra in April of 2005. Upon graduation from the Glenn Gould School, Sherkin was awarded the Dorothy Isabella Webb Trust Scholarship toward the pursuit of graduate studies. Sherkin went on to complete a Master of Music degree in composition at the Royal College of Music, London. There he received the Royal College’s John Foster Study Award; his principal teachers were David Sawer (composition) and Andrew Ball (piano). Further mentorship included weekly sessions with Timothy Salter, orchestration with Kenneth Hesketh and masterclasses with Colin Matthews and Mark-Anthony Turnage, among others. In England, Sherkin's music gained significant attention at concerts and festivals. In January of 2006, Sherkin gave the UK premiere of his own Three Preludes (2003) at the Park Lane Group’s Composers Symposium. Suite ‘Midvar’ was commissioned and premiered by saxophonist Amy Dickson at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall in March of 2006. The King’s Lynn Festival (Norfolk) featured Sherkin's chamber music, honouring George Vancouver's historical contribution to Canada. Sherkin enjoyed other debuts of his works in the UK: at St James Piccadilly and the National Portrait Gallery, London. Upon graduation from the Royal College of Music, Sherkin returned to Canada. Recent works and their premieres have included Whirlwave (2012) for piano and ensemble, Dances of the Changing Woman (2012) for piccolo and piano, German Promises (2011), As at First (2011), Daycurrents (2009), Sunderance (2008) each for solo piano, Vaettir for string orchestra (2007) and Southern Frames (2008) for toy piano. The National Youth Orchestra of Canada performed and recorded Sherkin's Terra Incognita (2005) on tour this past summer. With elegant pianistic command and fine communicative skill, Adam Sherkin is a young artist to watch. He blends the expression and intensity of the modern with the prophetic power of our musical past. Sherkin’s debut solo album, As At First, was released on the Centrediscs label in November of 2012. www.adamsherkin.com

CONTACT: Adam Sherkin, Pianist/Composer

710 Brock Avenue, Toronto Ontario, Canada M6H 3P2 Toronto Tel: 416 535 4612 Cell: 416 825 2744

U.K. tel: +44 (0)770 638 3699

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REPERTOIRE: SOLO PIANO Adam Sherkin, Pianist & Composer

C O M PO S E R TI TL E D U R A TI O N John Adams American Berserk (2001) 7’ China Gates (1977) 6’ Phrygian Gates (1977) 22’ Thomas Adès Still Sorrowing, op. 7 9’ Darknesse Visible (1992) 7’ J.S. Bach Preludes and Fugues: BWV 886-889 20’ Capriccio in B-flat major, BWV 992 11’ Four Duets, BWV 802-805 12’ Italian Concerto, BWV 971 11’ English Suites: Nos.1 & 2 - BWV 806 & 807 25’ & 27’ Partita No. 4 in D major, BWV 828 30’ French Suites: Nos. 2 and 6 - BWV 813 & 817 15’ & 29’ Samuel Barber Ballade, op.46 6’ L. van Beethoven Sonatas: Op. 2, No. 3 in C major 30’ Op. 14, No. 2 in E major 15’ Op. 22 in B-flat major 24’ Op. 53 in C major (“Waldstein”) 28’ Op. 54 in F major 12’ Op. 101 in A major 20’ George Benjamin Meditation on Haydn’s Name (1982) 3.5’ Shadowlines (2001) 15’ Luciano Berio Rounds (1967) 4.5’ Sequenza IV (1966) 8’ Leonard Bernstein Thirteen Anniversaries (1988) 23’ Touches (1980) 10’

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C O M PO S E R TI TL E D U R A TI O N Harrison Birtwistle Harrison’s Clocks (1998) 25’ Précis (1960) 5’ Pierre Boulez Une page d’éphémeride (2005) 6’ Johannes Brahms Klavierstücke, op. 118 25’ John Cage Quest (1935) and Two pieces for piano (1974) 9’ Metamorphosis (1938) 12’ Dream (1948) 5’ Elliot Carter Piano Sonata (rev. 1982) 21’ Two Diversions (1999) 8’ Frederic Chopin Three Impromptus : opp. 29, 36 and 51 15’ Mazurkas: opp. 17 and 24 12’ & 10’ Scherzo No. 2, op. 31 10’ Two Polonaises, op. 40 12’ Three Waltzes, op. 64 8’ Aaron Copland Night Thoughts (1972) 8’ Piano Fantasy (1955-57) 32’ Two piano pieces (1982/3) 5’ Claude Debussy Images, Book I (1905) L.110 15’ Short pieces: Danse (Tarentelle styrienne, L. 69) 5’ Hommage à Haydn (L. 115) 3’ Nocturne (L. 82) 6’ Rêverie (L. 68) 5’ S.C. Eckhardt-Gramatté Six Caprices (1931-1948) 52’ Gabriel Fauré Pièces brèves, op. 84 19’ Préludes, op. 103 22’ Nocturne op. 104, no. 1 5’

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C O M PO S E R TI TL E D U R A TI O N Johann Jakob Tombeau de M. Blancheroche 5’ Froberger Denis Gougeon Piano-Soleil (1990) 10’ F.J. Haydn Six sonatas: C major, Hob. XVI/21-26 14’ E major, Hob. XVI/22 13’ F major, Hob. XVI/23 12’ D major, Hob. XVI/24 15’ E-flat major, Hob. XVI/25 9’ A major, Hob. XVI/26 11’ (Dedicated to Prince Esterházy) Two sonatas: B minor, Hob. XVI/32 14’ D major, Hob. XVI/33 16’ Three sonatas: C major, Hob.XVI/50 20’ D major, Hob.XVI/51 8’ E-flat major, Hob.XVI/52 19’ (The London Sonatas) Charles Ives Study No.2, Varied Air and Variations 6’ Study No. 21, Some Southpaw Pitching 3’ Study No. 22 2’ Aram Khachaturian Toccata (1932) 5’ Sonatina (1959) 9’ Sonata (1976) 19’ Oliver Knussen Prayer Bell Sketch, op. 29 5’ Sonya’s Lullaby, op.16 6’ Philippe Leroux AMA (2010) 11’ Györgi Ligeti Études pour piano, Book III (2005) 12’ Musica ricercata (1953) 26’

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C O M PO S E R TI TL E D U R A TI O N Franz Liszt Grandes études de Paganini: No.4 in E major 4’ No. 6 in a minor 7’ Transcendental Etudes: No. 11 “Harmonies du Soir” 9’ No. 8 “Wild Hunt” 6’ Colin McPhee Kinesis and Invention (1928) 5’ Four Sketches, op. 1 6’ Olivier Messsiaen Quatre études de rhyme (1950) 18’ W.A. Mozart Sonata in D major, K. 311 18’ Sonata in C major, K. 330 17’ Sonata in C major, K.545 10’ Sonata in B-flat, K.333 30’ Per Norgärd Turn (1973) 13’ Barbara Pentland Studies in Line (1941) 12’ Sergei Prokofieff Sonata No.3 in A minor, op. 28 9’ Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major, op. 83 18’ Two Sonatinas, op. 54 10’ & 11’ Maurice Ravel Menuet sur le nom d’Haydn (1909) 3’ Pavane pour une infante défunte (1899) 7’ Le tombeau de Couperin (1917) 26’ Wolfgang Rihm Klavierstücke No. 4 (1970) 15’ Klavierstücke No. 5 (1971) 12’ Klavierstücke No. 7 (1980) 8’ Zwei kleine schwingungen (2004/2005) 4’ Sergei Preludes: op. 23, nos. 3-5 & op. 32, nos. 3, 9, 12 23’ Rachmaninoff Variations on a Theme of Corelli, op. 42 18’

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C O M PO S E R TI TL E D U R A TI O N Domenico Scarlatti Sonatas (15): A major, Kp. 24 E-flat major, Kp. 123 E minor, Kp. 198 A major, Kp. 322 A major, Kp. 342 B minor, Kp. 377 E major, Kp. 38 D major, Kp. 389 C major, Kp. 398 D major, Kp. 400 A major, Kp. 424 G major, Kp. 427 D major, Kp. 430 D major, Kp. 511 E major, Kp. 531 [each sonata is ca. 4’] Franz Schubert Four impromptus, D. 899 (op.90) 28’ Sonata in a minor, D.537 21’ Sonata in a minor, D. 784 20’ Sonata in G major, D. 894 37’ Three last pieces, D. 946 22’ Alexander Scriabin Three etudes, op. 65 9’ Adam Sherkin Daycurrents (2009) 6’ Fantasia Miniatura (2006) 5’ Meditations (2006-9) 12’ Sunderance (2008) 13’ Three Preludes (2003) 10’ As At First (2011) 13’ German Promises (2012) 16’ Igor Stravinsky Serenade in A (1925) 13’ Michael Tippett Sonata No.2 (1962) 14’

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C O M PO S E R TI TL E D U R A TI O N Claude Vivier Pianoforte (1975) 8’ Shiraz (1977) 13’ Iannis Xenakis Mists (1983) 10’ À R (1987)

Judith Weir The Art of Touching the Keyboard (1983) 10’

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CONCERTO REPERTOIRE C O M PO S E R TI TL E D U R A TI O N Samuel Barber Piano Concerto, op. 38 27’ Luciano Berio Points on a Curve to Find 12’

F.J. Haydn Concerto in G, Hob.XVII:4 * 26’ Jaqcues Hétu Concerto pour piano No.2, op.64 (1999) 21’ L e o s J a n a c e k C o n c e r t in o ( 1 9 2 5 ) * 1 8 ’ F r an z L i s z t C o n c e r t o N o . 1 i n E - f l a t 1 9 ’ W.A. Mozart Concerto No. 16 in D, K. 416 * 25’ Concerto No. 22 in E-flat, K. 482 35’ Olivier Messiaen Couleurs de la cité céleste (1963) * 18 Andrzej Panufnik Concerto for Piano (1961) 25’

Adam Sherkin Whirlwave (2012)* 17’

* Suitable for chamber orchestra or ensemble

November 1st, 2012 • www.adamsherkin.com

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LIST OF WORKS Adam Sherkin,, Composer & Pianist

TITLE YEAR INSTRUMENTATION DURATION PREMIERE/SELECTED PERFORMANCES _________________________________________________________________________________________ Saxa Ignis 2012 voice & saxophone 8 min. 9/21/12 Toronto Music Gallery, Charlotte Mundy, sop. Chelsea Shanoff, sax. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Dances of the 2012 piccolo & piano 6 min. 6/31/12 Toronto Changing Woman Royal Conservatory Alheli Pimienta, picc. Adam Sherkin, piano _________________________________________________________________________________________ Whirlwave 2012 piano and ensemble; 17 min. 3/4/12 Toronto fl, ob, 2 cl, bsn, 2 tpt, 2 hrn, Richard Bradshaw 2 trb, tba, 2 vn, va, vc, db, Amphitheatre, hp, perc, solo pn Four Seasons Centre for the Arts; New Music Ensemble of the Royal Conservatory Adam Sherkin, piano Brian Current, conductor _________________________________________________________________________________________ German Promises 2011 solo piano 16 min. 11/24/11 Toronto Glenn Gould Studio, Adam Sherkin, piano _________________________________________________________________________________________ As at First 2011 solo piano 13 min. 7/4/11 Toronto Jane Mallett Theatre, St Lawrence Centre Adam Sherkin, piano _________________________________________________________________________________________ Northen Frames 2010 solo piano 9 min. 12/3/10 Toronto Alliance Francaise Adam Sherkin, piano ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Daycurrents 2009 solo piano 5 min. 22/04/09 Toronto Heliconian Hall, Adam Sherkin, piano

Southern Frames 2008 toy piano 10 min. 4/10/08 Toronto Faculty of Music, University of Toronto Nuit Blanche Festival Stephanie Chua, piano

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TITLE YEAR INSTRUMENTATION DURATION PREMIERE/SELECTED PERFORMANCES Sunderance 2005-08 solo piano 14 min. 17/02/08 Toronto St George’s on the Hill Church Adam Sherkin, piano Vaettir 2007 string orchestra 9 min. 25/08/07 Toronto Trinity Chapel CM Consort Ashiq Aziz, conductor Serpent People 2007 fl, cl , trb, vn, vc, 7 min. 1/10/07 London UK Dances male speaker Royal College of Music Contemporary Consort with speaker Tom Fahy

Graham Ross, conductor

___________________________________________________________________________________________ Tales of Nanabush 2007 fl, ob, cl, bsn, hn, 20 min. N/A Episodes I - III trb, 3 perc, vn, va vc, db and speaker Etudes trouvés 2006- 2 trp, hn, 2 trb, pn 15 min. 10/06/07 London UK 2007 (movements I & IV only) Royal College of Music Artez Brass Ensemble Cliodna Shanahan, piano Ashiq Aziz, conductor

Si lungiamente m’ha 2007 SSAATTBB choir 6 min. N/A tenuto Amore Sentinels 2006 solo fl 7 min. 10/11/06 London UK National Portrait Gallery Julia Crowell, flute Paris 1777 2006 cl, bsn, db 3 min. 27/06/06 London UK Royal College of Music Mozart at 250 Ensemble Two Meditations 2006 solo pn 4 min. 10/05/06 Groningen, The Netherlands Onderdendam Studio Adam Sherkin, piano

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TITLE YEAR INSTRUMENTATION DURATION PREMIERE/SELECTED PERFORMANCES Tangents and 2006 fl, ob, va, db, 9 min. 16/03/08 London UK Horizons mar, hp Royal College of Music Composers Ensemble Suite ‘Midvar’ 2006 sop sax and pn 7 min. 3/3/06 Manchester UK The Bridgewater Hall 1/3/06 London UK St James’s Church Piccadilly Amy Dickson, saxophone & Luis Pares, piano A Place of 2005 SATB choir 5 min. N/A Disaffection Amadeus A.D. 2005 solo pn 1) 1.5 min. 02/02/06 London UK (Two versions ) 2) 3 min. (Version I) Steinway HalL Jeffrey Robson, piano Terra incognita 2004- symphony orchestra 18 min. 15/04/05 Toronto 2005 {2222 2231 timp, Glenn Gould Studio 3 perc, hp, strings} Royal Conservatory Orchestra Alain Trudel, conductor

Quartet: ‘Toward a 2004 fl, vn, vc, pn 8 min. 22/04/04 Toronto Royal Theme’ Glenn Gould Studio Pre-concert for Soundstreams, The Bouvier Quartet Three Preludes 2003 solo pn 10 min. 25/07/03 Banff, The Banff Centre Adam Sherkin, piano

NOVEMBER 1ST 2012 __________________

Adam Sherkin Composer and Pianist

www.adamsherkin.com

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AS AT FIRST Pianist-Composer Adam Sherkin’s Debut Disc reviewed by Stanley Fefferman

January 28, 2013 by Stanley Fefferman

As At First. Adam Sherkin, piano. Centrediscs, 2012

During the past three years, Adam Sherkin has developed a reputation as a go-to pianist for really difficult works, be it by John Adams, Harrison Birtwhistle,Tazul Izan Tajuddin, Luciano Berio: you name it—Sherkin will play it. But from the start, he let it be known that he was a pianist-composer, so it’s a timely thing to have this first recording of his works.

The title composition bursts out of the gate in an opulent rush that evokes movement of the whole body. “As at First (2011)” exhibits Sherkin’s preference for well-made three movement forms marked by delicacy and elegant playfulness. His piano tolls deeply and trills, balancing rolling chords in the left and runs in the right, tending in tempo toward a walking

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andante. His preferred mood is contemplative, reflective, dreamy, dissonant enough not to be easy or predictable, and in the final movement picks up passion rising sometimes to urgent alarm that rumbles in the bass. Cells that sound minimalist build beautifully, rising to rhapsodic with rolling arpeggios aslant slow paced melodies.

The CD’s opening composition, “German Promises (2011)” announces a kind of hidden program that I don’t get. Like most of Sherkin’s compositions here, it features repetition and iteration in a fashion associated with American rather than German music, and if I had to peg his work on another composer, I would choose Ann Southam, but that is of no importance. What matters is the fine woven mesh of musical lines Sherkin makes, balanced and symmetrical that shifts but never abruptly. Here as elsewhere, there are patches of dark chordal hammering, long silences, and rippling arpeggios suggesting a drama, perhaps romantic, possibly French.

My favourite pieces are the three very short “Meditations (2006)”, the first delicate, unusually melodic and tranquil; the second more perky in colouration and affording single notes duration to expand and fade away, and the third looming larger and more darkly. “Day Currents (2009)” is unique for its gnarly energy and turbulent emotions. “Three Preludes” show Sherkin’s hand in hardedge designs, fragmented, edgy, disjointed wit, as well as a taste for melodramatic sentimentality verging on nostalgia.

There is craftsmanship in this debut album well worth hearing, and a sense of daring in the restraint with which Sherkin handles his virtuosity, giving rein instead to subtle shifts of sense. I expect in the next album, Sherkin might choose to be less careful and trust more in his original voice. Till that time comes, As At First, splendidly produced by David Jaeger, offers some special listening. This entry was posted in CD Review and tagged Adam Sherkin, As At First, David Jaeger, OpusOneReview.

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Adam Sherkin As At First REVIEWS IMPROV & AVANT-GARDE DEC 18 2012

By Nick Storring

Don't judge Toronto, ON-based pianist/composer Adam Sherkin's debut album by its cover. Allegedly "forged in tradition and contemporary relevance," and containing several homages to the classical music canon, these compositions are in fact far more interesting and personal than encumbered by their "dead white guy" forbearers. Sherkin's music is unmistakably that of a young, living, breathing and very gifted composer. This being 2012 though, he's not really an iconoclast either; instead, his work manifests gentle contradictions. Each piece is varied, even audibly drawing from numerous aesthetics and traditions, yet everything sounds expertly crafted and cohesive. One hears cell-like motives from American minimalism, colouristic Romanticism, as pioneered by Scriabin and Ravel, Satie's peculiar melodic gait and even shades of Messiaen's poised rectangularity, and yet, remarkably, it's in a language of his own. The works are also fluid, yet full of kinks ― stray notes diverging from the anticipated trajectory, belligerent interjections or delicately profuse addendums. A far cry from crass virtuoso showpieces, this collection flatters Sherkin's cogent and sensitive agility on the instrument. Solo piano music is a deceptively difficult pursuit, but Sherkin is right on point, and has produced highly engaging full-length devoted to the medium. (Centrediscs) !

Adam Sherkin – As At First Current Reviews - Modern and Contemporary Reviewed by Nic Gotham

Wednesday, 30 January 2013

Adam Sherkin – As At First Adam Sherkin Centrediscs CMCCD 18212 This new recording finds Adam Sherkin at a fascinating early point in his career as a composer. Sherkin trained first as a pianist, and the works on this CD of his solo piano compositions show him processing this experience. Having engaged the piano repertoire as broadly and comprehensively as one could ask of an artist of 29 years, classical piano music remains his central point of reference. Clearly evident are the influences of an entire gallery of European piano keyboard composers from the Baroque through the late 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Mozart and Haydn are overtly acknowledged in this recording (in the pieces called Amadeus A.D. and Daycurrents, respectively), but the presence of Bach, Liszt and Shostakovich are no less clearly felt at various points in the proceedings.

Influences aside, what do we perceive of Sherkin himself? It’s a fair question in this case, because his compositions must accommodate the performer’s own fulsome expressivity: the dynamic range of his playing is wide, tending to the forte; his articulation is crisp with a fondness for jabbing accents; his phrasing often features a late-Romantic emotionalism in its rubato, but can also — albeit less frequently — settle into a calmer metric momentum. And here is what is interesting about this portrait: as a composer, he is dealing with the conflicting attractions of self-expression on one hand, as in the solo piano music of Schoenberg or Scriabin for example, and a less subjective, more outward and “American” approach on the other, as in the music of John Adams, with whose solo piano music Sherkin is well acquainted. It is a typically 21st century creative quandary, and Adam Sherkin has taken up the struggle with energy and panache.

Tonight: Pianist Adam Sherkin shows off both composition and interpretive skills at the Jane Mallett Theatre WWW.MUSICALTORONTO.ORG BY JOHN TERAUDS ON NOVEMBER 1, 2012 · ADD COMMENT Toronto pianist Adam Sherkin, who presents a solo recital at the Jane Mallett Theatre tonight, is a model of the 21st century solo artist in art music. His repertoire includes Bach and Haydn, but he is a big fan of 20th century music as well. He adds a 21st century component by writing his own, becoming one of those rare pianists who is a creator as well as interpreter. He opens his Toronto season with a very nicely thought-out programme that pairs pieces by mood, attitude and style. Many of the pieces share a searching quality, by composers having a later-career epiphany of some sort. The evening opens with Samuel Barber’s Op.46 Ballade, one of his last pieces, written in 1977. Ballades are usually breezy things, but Barber’s is more like a solitary walk by someone worrying an idea or problem over in their head. The piece is big and dark, but in a satisfying way. Sherkin says the piece, “has the qualities I’ve really come to appreciate in [Barber’s] vocal writing. There’s a lyricism and an economy of means that I thought would be a great opener to the programme.” Sherkin says he wants to relieve the gloom without an applause break with Frédéric Chopin’s Op.36 Impromptu. “I can’t think of a sunnier key than F-sharp major,” he explains. The first half of the evening ends with Aaron Copland’s Piano Fantasy from the mid-1950’s. The pianist is fond of Copland and a mid-century Modern sensibility. “He was my first port of call in getting to know American piano music,” says Sherkin, who studied piano performance in Toronto and composition in London, England. The musician says he has rarely played the music of Robert Schumann in public, but is taking the plunge with a late set of five pieces, Gesänge der Frühe (Songs of Dawn), written in 1853. Sherkin was drawn to these pieces because they’re forward-thinking “and have a skewed sense of tonality.” “All of the technical and structural issues are turned toward expressive purposes, which, I’d like to argue, is not always the case in some of his earlier works,” he adds. The recital closes with Sherkin’s own five-piece cycle, German Promises, which he premiered in Toronto last year and that will feature on As At First, an upcoming album release from the Canadian Music Centre made up entirely of Sherkin’s creations. The album was recorded at the Glenn Gould Studio, with the CBC’s gifted David Jaeger acting as producer. Sherkin feels he’s lucky to have a support network of friends, fans and donors to help make all of these projects possible – from posting flyers around the city to helping underwrite a recording project. As for what all this freelancing means for his own career, Sherkin describes it as “a long-term investment – if you’ve got content.” He does, and it’s worth sampling.

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Adam Sherkin’s “Plastic Dawn” at the St. Lawrence Centre reviewed by Stanley Fefferman Posted on November 2, 2012 by Stanley Fefferman

November 1, 2012. Jane Mallett Theatre, Toronto.

Pianist-composer Adam Sherkin put together a challenging program for the opening recital of his Toronto season: four compositions by established composers in transition, and one of his own recent works, German Promises (2011). Transitions are difficult—the pieces Sherkin played were not easy—but the commitment and consistent excellence of his playing made this a quality listening experience.

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Sherkin grouped his selections under the title Plastic Dawn to signify that life situations are malleable, can be shaped by imagination to bring light and promise into our lives, even in difficult circumstances. Samuel Barber wrote Ballade, Op. 46, his last work for piano, in 1977 at the onset of a mortal illness. He struggled for a year to fulfill a commission for this 7 ! minutes of music. Ballade is a three-part piece in a form usually reserved for lighter moods. It explores emotional extremes from anxiety, through anger and anguish, to grief. Sherkin’s treatment of the neo-Romantic temper of the work is appropriately contrasty, bringing out its colour, drama, and lyricism. He has a fine touch, modulating thoughtfully throughout from “forte” (perhaps a bit too forceful at the opening) to “piano.” Chopin wrote the Impromptu in F-sharp, Op. 36 (1839) as his life was being taken over by serious illness, debilitating travels, and a domineering lover— Georges Sand. Following without a break on the Barber, the Impromptu’s flowing, lyrical lines lifted this evening’s mood. During the flamboyant second section’s percussive passages, Sherkin impressed with his good sense of time, and with his legato as Chopin’s long melodic line leaps forward, dissolves, and sprints in trills towards the coda. Aaron Copland took two years to write Piano Fantasy (1955-1957). The challenge, in his own words, was to remould his reputation, to get past “a tendency in recent years to typecast me as primarily a purveyor of Americana in music. ” Copland’s largest and most ambitious piano work is a half-hour, continuous one-movement piece with elements of both twelve-tone method and normally expressive tonal music. It moves freely, making up its form as it goes, like a ‘fantasy’, like the free-verse experimental poetic narratives of Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams. It opens boldly, with a craggy sequence of dark, ”clangourous,” chords that Sherkin sustains using the right pedal. He ably structures the sequences that follow, some flowing softly, others rumbling into (“White”) jazz riffs, over brooding crescendos that drift like pealing bells into a Debussyesque elegance of vague forms and muted colours. The creativity of composer and performer is quite thrilling. Some violent and hallucinatory passages follow in a multi-voiced chorus that Sherkin makes lucid. The

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slower ideas of the first section recur and the work ends in the crystalline trilling of bells that fade into a significant silence.

Schumann composed his Songs of Dawn, Op.133 (1854) around the time of his attempted suicide and incarceration in the asylum where he died. The five “Songs” are lyrical, but reach out towards the borders of reality to express his inner dissonance. Schumann’s ideas tend to congregate around the middle and deep end of the keyboard, flowing away from legato into jagged, snappy, lines. The fourth song though quick, and light, somehow touches feelings of intense longing, sadness and a self-preserving urge to cheer oneself up. Light in the final song flows richly, clear and bright along intricate musical lines. Adam Sherkin says that his German Promises (2011)—a short, five-part study of Germany’s contribution to musical culture—expresses both exhilaration and disillusion. His opening musical argument is elaborate, high in the right hand, repeating series of bell-like tones and figures. Series of slower chords follow in the bass, with crystalline notes in the right sounding like mocking echoes of Romantics like Chopin, Schumann, and Leonard Bernstein. A long silence is succeeded by echoes of Philip Glass and the hammering of dark chords that bring to mind Beethoven. The piece gains tremendous momentum through bass runs that usher in our own world with its traffic on roads, in high velocity particle accelerators, mass production lines, and the relentless STAMP of mechanical forces that shape our ends. The final, long sustained note is ambiguous. Adam Sherkin’s debut album As At First will drop later in the month on the Centredisques label. This entry was posted in CD Review and tagged Aaron Copland, Chopin wrote the Impromptu in F-sharp, Jane Mallett Theatre, Op. 36 (1839), Op.133, Opusonereview(1854), Piano Fantasy (1955-1957), Samuel Barber, Schumann Songs of Dawn, St. Lawrence Centre, Stanley Fefferman. Bookmark the permalink.