Zwei Klavierstücke
for piano (1984)
Certosa Verlag, 4 minutes
“And the closing… [the final piece of Herstory III]… is perfect…” (IAWM Journal)
Zwei Klavierstücke consist of two pieces: Pour Christine and Supplication.
Pour Christine is a brief, impressionistic piece that was written for virtuoso pianist, Christine Paraschos, in thanks for her spectacular performance of the composer’s Persona at the Pompidou Center in Paris. The two musicians met as graduate students but had lost touch until they chanced to meet in Paris some twenty years later. Finding many musical compatibilities, they first collaborated on the Persona performance and then continued in a collaboration with artist Anne Saussois and choreographer and dancer Beth Soll for a choreographed version of the piece. Paraschos later came to Boston to give an electrifying premiere of Vercoe’s Despite our differences #2 for violin, cello and piano with Alea III. Paraschos premiered Pour Christine on a recital at the Salle Cortot in Paris in 1985. Following her tragic death in 1997, Pour Christine and Despite our differences #2 were dedicated to her memory.
Supplication is a simple piano arrangement of the final prayer of the composer’s monodrama on the life of Joan of Arc, Herstory III: Jehanne de Lorraine. The piece is also published in Extraordinary Measures, a collection of 33 easy-to-intermediate pieces by contemporary Boston-area composers sponsored by the League-ISCM, Boston.
To order the score: Certosa Verlag
