Rhapsodie Macabre

Rhapsody Macabre is a composition for piano and string quartet by Graham Waterhouse. He wrote in 2011 as a tribute to Franz Liszt and played the cello part in the first performance at the Liszt Festival 2011 in Gasteig, Munich.

History, structure and Music

Waterhouse wrote it for the final concert of Liszt Festival in Gasteig that its chamber music with works by Waterhouse contrasted the 200th anniversary entitled " Hommage à Liszt". The title ties to the composer of works by Liszt, his rhapsodies, his 1849 started Totentanz - Paraphrase on Dies irae for Piano and Orchestra and its Arrangement for Piano of Danse macabre from Camille Saint- Saëns. Waterhouse also cited several times the Gregorian on " Dies irae " and used items that he found in Liszt's music: virtuoso piano music, " harmonious colors by chord formations with predominantly thirds or fourths ," " timbre as a structuring agent, extreme registers of the piano, percussive interjections "and the transformation of the main theme in the course of the work", with the " Dies irae " theme plays a special role. The play, a " chamber music concert with elements " is through-composed, but divided into five sections:

• Allegro alla toccata
• Presto precipitando
• Adagio Lusingando
• Vivace
• Con moto giusto

The section in the manner of a toccata based on two themes, including the " Dies irae ". In the second section of this issue appears in both lyrical and ironic. In the third section, the strings introduce a vocal melody that takes over the piano and leads to dialogue. The fourth section is a " demonic " Scherzo in 6/8-measure. The finale combines all the topics and ends with a coda, which is denoted by Presto.

A review in the Süddeutsche Zeitung compares the music with a " spooky - dream ride through surreal landscapes, full of surprising twists and events."

Performances

The premiere was 23 October 2011 played in the context of the Liszt Festival of the pianist Valentina Babor, strings of the Munich Philharmonic, Clément Courtin, Namiko Fuse and Konstantin Sell Home, and the composer as a cellist. The ensemble played several concerts in the Munich area, for example, on 20 March 2012 at the Munich College of Music in a confrontation with piano quartets of Beethoven and Three Pieces for Solo Cello by Waterhouse. The musicians played the first performance in England on 9 October 2012 in London at Highgate School, whose pupils was the composer, in a portrait concert. The reviewer described the work as a mini - piano concert.