The Light That Breaks Through

ensemble piano and strings (ideally 8.8.6.4.3; minimum 5.5.4.3.2)
written fall 2020
duration 12 minutes

reviews

“…an emotional and mighty achievement… There’s an overall warmth and complexity to this music. It rushes at a listener; it glows.” - Limelight Magazine

“…exciting, frenzied, unpredictable, full of atmosphere and very enjoyable. The playing by Apcar and the orchestra of this challenging work was excellent and you could see how much the pianist was enjoying playing it.” - CityNews CBR

Runner Up in the 2021 Red Note Composition Competition

program

Having lived most of my life in major metropolitan centers, nature has only rarely served as an inspiration for my work, and never more so than with The Light That Breaks Through. Written at an artist colony in upstate New York, I found myself surrounded by all kinds of novel sights - vast stretches of open sky, meadows of wild thyme, vistas of the Hudson Valley extending out into an ageless horizon. I began taking multiple walks a day to try and soak it all in, as if to make up for my years spent in the city.

This piece derives its title from the beauty of sunlight spilling through crevices in the sky. Filtered through crisscrossing branches and insouciant cloud layers, the resultant light on my forest walks possessed a sprightly capriciousness. I felt a kind of kinship with its occasional clarity, particularly as an improviser: I often sit at the piano for hours before ideas solidify beyond the haze of experimentation and into music.

I sought to create a concerto that would feel like one of these unbroken improvisations: the pianist fantasizing, the strings evoking the soloist’s imagined soundscapes. The piano begins by tentatively poking and prodding at a simple three-note motif, and as such, the strings cast a similarly uncertain backdrop. As the soloist extends into grander, more explosive gestures, the strings swell in strength and take on a life of their own. Eventually, the piano emphatically regains control, and gradually returns to the opening material, as though recovering a lost memory. This time, the pianist gently invites the strings into a hymn-like melody. The piece culminates in celebratory arpeggios of the main motif that gradually drift up and away, retracting into the pianist’s highest register.

performances

06/15/22 - Ronan Apcar, piano, Leonard Weiss, cond., and the Canberra Sinfonia
03/29/21 - Natalia Martynova, piano, Roman Kreslenko, cond., and the KLK String Orchestra