Concert Variations (on a simple tune) (2008)

Program Notes:

My Concert Variations began as a piece for violin, piano, and actors on a commission from violinist Midori in 1998 to commemorate the 5th anniversary of her foundation in New York, which helps the public schools in their music education programs. It was a collaboration with Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are. Sendak provided a script and drawings, with each drawing providing a different scene. I provided the music for each scene and the piece received its premiere at Carnegie Recital Hall (Weill Hall) in New York with Midori, violin, and Tom Sauer, piano.

A decade later, Jessica Mathaes asked me for a piece for violin and piano and I decided to turn this music into a set of variations. The "simple" theme at the opening is put through a series of transformations in the set of 5 variations, leading to the last variation which is the longest and most virtuosic of the set. The opening theme returns at the end, having come full circle, as the music fades into silence.

-- Pierre Jalbert