Sonata for Pianist

Instrumentation:
Piano solo

Duration:
16’00”

First performance:
Sara Larikka
7.10.2022, Oulu, Finland

Program notes:

en: Unlike in a traditional Piano Sonata, in this Sonata for a Pianist, we position ourselves as listeners closer to the perspective of the player.

Each part of the piece explores playing the piano from different angles: first we start by finding high and low keys, we look for chords and listen to the acoustics of the space. Sometimes the hands cross or the pedal echoes to block the sound until we get to practice playing different dynamics, i.e. volumes, and of course scales and cadences! With these simple elements, the pianist begins to compose music that, on the one hand, constantly returns to familiar things, on the other hand, constantly creates new situations.

The piece has seven movements:

I: Introduction
II: 88 keys
III: Interlude 1
IV: Soft & Loud
V: Interlude 2
VI: Let’s play some scales and cadences…
VII: Postlude

Listen: