Steve says:
More and more as I get older as a composer, it’s more important for me to have a personal connection with my compositions. We’ve got a toddler and a baby at home, and Orli and David have two toddlers.
Our first baby was premature and was in the hospital’s intensive care unit for six weeks. David and Orli were very supportive through that, they sent clothes and toys, and we bonded over that.
The piano can be a formidable adversary for the orchestra. With your ten fingers and your two feet, you can make a big sound. And the piano has this plinkety quality – the sound of hitting a chord and immediately releasing most of the notes, and leaving just one. I love this plinkety quality.
You hear this staccato and this note rings and sounds almost like a broken toy, as if a string were broken. My idea was to really start the piece with a childlike perspective on the piano. I’m imagining a narrative where the piano starts off as this broken toy, and over the course of the piece it becomes a rich, warm, full instrument.
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