On 8 September Lindsay Garritson premiered Carl Vine’s Three Pieces for solo piano at the University of Miami, Florida. The 11-minute group of pieces – Gossamer, Suspension, and Joy – is the latest to be premiered by Garritson, who commissioned Vine’s Piano Sonata No.4 and gave its first performance in 2019 at Carnegie Hall. Three Pieces follows on from the release in June of a new recording of Vine’s complete Piano Sonatas by Xiaoya Liu on Dynamic.
Gossamer is dedicated to Garritson and features intricate unspooling arabesques. The title, Vine says, refers directly to “cobwebs spun by small spiders (especially in autumn)”, as well as to “the likely derivation of that word from the Middle English “goose summer”.” Suspension features a chord in the very deepest register of the piano that tolls throughout the piece, with ethereal, stratospheric figures above. Joy - commissioned by Marcus Hodgson - is an exuberant rush of triplets, and often sets two in the right hand against three in the left.
Garritson will give the Australian premiere of the Three Pieces on 26 September in Melbourne, before subsequent performances of the piece in Brisbane and Sydney. Garritson’s recital programme includes Vine’s Piano Sonata No.4 as well as his Five Bagatelles and Toccatissimo.
Vine’s Piano Concerto No.2 will be performed at London’s Cadogan Hall on 29 November, with Piers Lane as soloist. Scott Wilson conducts the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra.