Edits Complete on New Trio Recording

My trio entitled Lines, Hockets, and Riffs was recorded by the Trio Casals at the Rose Recital Hall in Philadelphia on July 3. I just completed my comments on the 2nd round of edits and sent them to the audio engineering team at PARMA Recordings. They did a fantastic job, as did the performers. I am very happy with the results.

The recording will be part of a compilation album by Trio Casals, the 3rd in their Moto series, tentatively scheduled for release in Spring, 2018. There will be a concert at in New York City's Weill Recital Hall (the small venue at Carnegie Hall) after the release.

I wrote Lines, Hockets, and Riffs - or, as I affectionately (or impatiently?) call it, LHR - a long, long time ago. Back then I scored it for flute, clarinet, and cello. A still earlier version - I hate to say this, but I started it when I was at Juilliard, which was eons ago - had soprano sax in place of clarinet. This was a kind of homage to John Coltrane, and the third movement had a somewhat late-Coltrane-like cadenza in it.The piece had some serious problems. Rewriting it had been on my artistic to-do list for years.

So when the opportunity arose to take part in the Moto series, I rescored LHR for violin, cello, and piano, and completely rewrote it. The new version uses the same underlying material, but much more tightly, and the narrative shape of the piece is much clearer. Also, it can be performed without torturing the musicians with impossible rhythms. (I am, today, a much saner and pragmatic composer than I was in my 20s!) The cadenza is still in there, but it's shared among the instruments instead of the solo sax /clarinet in the original. Probably no one else would recognize it as being at all influenced by Coltrane. But it was.

Mastering of the entire album won't be for a few months yet. I can hardly wait!