Metamorphosis for piano & orchestra (revised in 1993)

• Date: 1993
• Composer: Richard Danielpour
• Period: Modern (1910-1949)

Review

Richard Danielpour's Metamorphosis for piano and orchestra, which describes (in the composer's words) "a transformation of the soul," underwent some transformations of its own before finding a final form. It began life in 1987 as a quintet for piano and strings; a New York Chamber Symphony commission allowed Danielpour to expand it into the concerto form he had originally intended. Danielpour completed that comission in 1990, then made some final revisions in 1993. Like many Danielpour works, Metamorphosis has a general program, here found in the titles of the three movements: Annunciation, Atonement, and Apotheosis. The Annunciation (marked Deciso, con energia) begins with a declamation: agitated octaves pounded by the piano like a hammer on an anvil. In the background, strings outline the main theme of the work, a three-note stepwise motive, in churning sixteenth notes. The piano soon takes up the propulsive development of this motive with the orchestra. Rhythms receive uncomfortably heavy accents; chords are repeated obsessively; small pockets of lyricism disappear as abruptly as they enter, and the piano actually slays the last such interlude with an onslaught of sixteenth notes before the movement ends on an oddly reticent pizzicato chord. The composer has rephrased the subtitle of Atonement (Lento e triste) as "at-one-ment," and the movement opens with much more private music. The strings play first, unspooling a calm, ruminative theme based on the three-note motive from the first movement. Soon the piano enters with a new but similarly calm phrase. However, the piano's entry seems to throw something off; chords become more dissonant, rhythms more irregular, and soon we have returned to the tumult of Annunciation. Strings essay a chorale, but the rest of the orchestra and the piano cannot leave it at peace, and they fight a subtle fight until finally all tension drains away at the movement's end. Apotheosis (Con moto, un poco adagio) serves as a celebration based on a four-note motive introduced immediately by joyful strings and brass and then taken up by the piano. Lyrical interludes crop up here, too, but they are swept up in the general exuberance. The music even becomes a little wild in its joy at times, with riotous syncopations and huge sweeps of notes in the piano, but the final notes are truly fulfilled. ~ Andrew Lindemann Malone, Rovi

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title	Date
Perle: New Etudes; Danielpour: Metamorphosis

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