The Concerto for Piano, Pianos and Orchestra

Things here are not improving — if anything, they are getting worse. The settlers' movement is out of control in the occupied territories, with support from the police and the army, and the so-called "moderate" right-wing and center politicians. People here are hopeful that the elections, sixty days from now, will change things, but I am skeptical. I try to scream — both verbally and with new pieces — and I volunteer to help those trying to protect the victims.

Meanwhile, I just received the documentation of the premiere performance of Concerto for Piano, Pianos and Orchestra, V. 2024, with Hagai Yodan at the piano and Roi Azoulai conducting the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra — both did an amazing job — and Dor Fisher was excellent at the computer.

This piece has an interesting story behind it. In 1989 I was in residence at the Banff Centre in Canada, where I worked on a piece for seven pianos and chamber orchestra. The pianos were all Yamaha Disklaviers (one grand piano and six uprights), provided generously by the Yamaha Corporation. The pianist played one piano, and the MIDI information was sent to a computer (Mac SE), processed by a program written in Max (beta version .89), which controlled the other six pianos surrounding the orchestra. Anthony de Mare was the fantastic pianist at the premiere during the Banff Summer Festival in 1990, and the Banff Chamber Orchestra was ably conducted by Michael Century. A video of this performance is available on YouTube. The piece was performed with the same setup once again in Minnesota, and — for obvious reasons — never again.

In 2023, Michael Wolpe suggested that  I write a new version for symphony orchestra for the Jerusalem Pianos Festival, and this is the result. I replaced the six pianos with a computer playing piano samples and generating a live video, meant to be projected on the orchestra.