Note
My good friend Dave Kaplan asked me to write a companion piece to Mozart’s K. 414 concerto for his degree recital. My last attempt at a piano concerto was when I was 15, and since then, I’ve mostly lost interest in the typical “virtuosity for its own sake” soloist versus orchestra dynamic of the genre. Luckily, the Mozart-sized forces led me to approach Home Stretch as chamber music, allowing for more subtle gestures and interplay between musicians.
I also knew I wanted Home Stretch to have something to do with fast cars, which Dave is obsessively interested in. The piece is in three large sections which gradually accelerate: beginning in almost total stasis, working up to an off-kilter dance with stabbing accents, and ushering in a sturm-und-drang cadenza which riles itself up into a perpetual-motion race to the finish. However, there are always little “smudges” of music from each section in the others, sometimes fitting into to their new context, sometimes balefully interrupting.
Listen
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Purchase
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Home Stretch score, print edition
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Home Stretch score, PDF edition
32 pages, 11×17 format. Includes full score only. Parts are available for rental; please email rentals@andres.com for a quote.