European American Music Distributors Company is a member of the Schott Music Group

Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival Premieres Two New Works by Alexander Goehr

Jul. 01, 2015

Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival Premieres Two New Works by Alexander Goehr

The Sante Fe Chamber Music Festival, which takes place this year from July 19 through August 24, has a celebrated history of presenting and commissioning new works. This season’s festival, under the artistic leadership of composer/pianist Marc Neikrug, features the world premieres of two new works by Alexander Goehr: Variations, Op 93 “Homage to Haydn” for solo piano and Seven Impromptus, Op. 96 for two pianos.

Commissioned by Russian piano virtuoso Kirill Gerstein, Goehr’s Variations, Op. 93 “Homage to Haydn” receives its world premiere at the festival on July 19, with a repeat performance on July 20. Variations is modeled on Franz Joseph Haydn’s Variations in F minor/major, but Goehr’s work stands on its own in uniqueness and distance from the original. The premiere takes place in the St. Francis Auditorium at the New Mexico Museum of Art. 

Goehr’s Seven Impromptus was commissioned by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival for pianists Soyeon Kate Lee and Ran Dank. Goehr found inspiration in variation 20 of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, where two unrelated harmonies are juxtaposed and emphasized by repetition. Seven Impromptus explores this non-sequitur idea through various facets of music: high and low, loud and soft, slow and fast. Lee and Dank give the premiere on August 17 at the Lensic Performing Arts Center.

For more information on Alexander Goehr, visit schott-music.com.

Tickets and concert information can be found at santafechambermusic.com.

Alexander Goehr
Variations, Op. 93 (2012)
(Homage to Haydn)
for solo piano
10’ 

Seven Impromptus, Op. 96 (2014)
for two pianos

News