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WASHINGYON
SQUARE CONCERT SERIES
Merkin
Hall, New York, April 8th 2010
Fabio Grasso:
Blumentraum, S. Gosling, piano
« Mr. Stephen Gosling also
performed the program’s opening piece, the New York premiere of Fabio Grasso’s
“Blumentraum.” The title is a homage to “Blumenstücke” by the German writer
Jean Paul, which inspired Schumann’s work of the same name. Mr. Grasso quotes
the theme of Schumann’s score in this effective work, whose gauzy,
impressionistic colors are meant to evoke (according to the notes) a “peaceful
spring scene in the tender morning light.”».
Vivien Schweitzer, The New York Times, April 9th 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/09/arts/music/09wash.html
«
Stephen Gosling began the concert with Fabio Grasso’s “blumentraum.” The piece
is for
piano
solo or, alternately, with flute, violin, and cello “ad libitum.” The piano by
itself
more
than sufficed to make a stirring musical impression. Created as homage to both
the
writer Jean Paul and Robert Schumann’s “Blumenstücke” (a work he inspired), the
piece
actually seems to channel a more Impressionist musical language, with
shimmering
washes of scalar passages, lush chords, and a supple rhythmic ebb and flow.
The
score itself (which the composer was kind enough to send along to this writer
in
advance
of the concert) seems daunting at first glance; its graphic notation, cutaway
styled
layout, and snatches of aleatory making it look formidably challenging to
execute.
That
may well be the case, but in Mr. Gosling’s hands, “blumentraum” was pervaded
with a seemingly effortless fluidity of diaphanous
mobility.»
Christian Carey, Musical America, www.musicalamerica.com