PROGRAM NOTE
Fantasy Variations for solo cello is comprised of a theme and four variations. Aspects of the two main ideas appearing in the work’s opening are taken through a series of transformations. They are: (1) a brooding, introductory line which returns at several key points, straddling the blurred boundaries between elemental, raw sound and pitched music, and (2) a contrasting, boldly soaring statement of clear melodic and harmonic definition. Each successive section is both a variation and, progressively more so as the work unfolds, also a fantasy, revealing new facets of previously heard materials. The fourth variation has the character of a recapitulation.
Fantasy Variations was commissioned and first performed by André Emelianoff, to whom the work is dedicated. It was begun in Tel Aviv in the summer of 1979 following the sudden death of a beloved uncle, Reuven Aviram, whose memory imbues much of the piece. Completed in Chicago, the work was further revised in 1984, with cellist Barbara Haffner being the first to present the newly revised version at the University of Chicago.
—Shulamit Ran
INFORMATION
Commissioned by
André Emelianoff
First performance:
November 24, 1980
André Emelianoff, cello
Carnegie Recital Hall, NYC
First performance of
revised version:
Barbara Haffner, cello, 1984
Fulton Hall, the University of Chicago
Recorded by Natasha Brofsky, cello, on the Peabody Trio disc Shulamit Ran, New World Records 80554-2
SHEET MUSIC
Available from your favorite sheet music seller, or directly from Theodore Presser.