Classical Music | Music for Trio

Recorded on 07/10/2013, uploaded on 02/06/2014

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

"Can music reflect colors and can colors be reflected in music?  I have always been fascinated with the connection between painting and music.  In my composing, I often picture colors as if I were spreading them on a canvas, except I do so with melodies, harmonies, and through the instruments themselves."

There is no doubt of the fiery red nature of the music of Jennifer Higdon's Trio.  Beginning with abrupt sixteenth-note patterns, huge string chords, and octaves in the bass of the piano, the work soon turns to brilliant up-and-down runs for the strings, complemented by a fast-moving, dissonant piano part accentuated by glissandos. The dynamic is loud, with sudden softer contrasts. Then as the piano part becomes less insistent, a brief interlude emerges with ostinatos for violin and keyboard. After some measures in which all three instruments play in high registers, there comes a recapitulation of sorts with the return of the up-and-down runs while, rondo-like, the ostinato pattern returns in its midst. At the end, the piano plays increasingly powerful chords until all is suddenly resolved on an A major chord.     Lincoln Trio

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.