Dedicated to Steven Gross
Tapestry for horn, violin, and piano was originally written for Steven Gross in 1998, and extensively revised in 2015. This is the first performance of the revised version.
The work opens and closes in triumph; in between it explores the ironies and hesitations that impinge on triumph, temper it, and, perhaps, make it real. The opening fanfares are quickly and abruptly interrupted by a brusque chord, silences and interjections. Soft questions from the horn initiate a continuous movement, in the form of a mysterious dialogue intensifying to a climax, in turn cut off by thunderous piano trills. These fade into a quiet slow movement, whose lyricism leads to a big climax and fades away.
Soft fragments of the opening lead to a recollection of the initial triumph, and quickly on to a light-hearted scherzo. Another brief recollection of the opening leads into a recapitulation of the initial continuous movement, now driving rather than mysterious, and a last restatement that initiates a lively coda and leads to a brilliant close.