Arabesque

subtitle:
For amplified piano and chamber orchestra
year:
1983
lenght:
18'
instrumentation:
1.1.1.1. – 1.1.1.0. – 2 melod. sopr., melod. alto – archi: 4.0.4.2.1. or a full cast of strings
publisher:
Universal Edition, Vienna / PWM Kraków
premiere:

January 7, 1984 / Radio France, Paris

 

Nouvel Orchester Philharmonique

cond. David Epstein

Zygmunt Krauze – piano

Commission:
Radio France, Paris
details:

Krauzes Arabesque, a piano concerto in which the soloist never gets to sit down but leans into the instrument and manipulates stones and steel rods on the strings. What emerges wonderfully from such operations is a spray of high, jangling sonorities, aptly matched at the start at the start of the piece by violins playing in their top register, and contrasted later with full wind chords. The new piano sounds are strange and delightful, and the new image of the pianist is strange too.

 

Paul Griffiths, New York Times, 26. 09. 1997

availability:
video: