Edito de Caio Pagano Performs The Piano Music Of James DeMarsIn the spring of 1995 James DeMars had just completed an ecumenical mass, An American Requiem, when Chantale de Salaberry commissioned a sonata for piano four-hand and thus provided an opportunity to escape the gravity of the requiem and turn toward a simple, clear expression of the joy of life. Work began in the spring and continued between other projects throughout the course of the year. In this way a ?diary of the seasons? was created with each movement written during its respective time, capturing a moment from the unique mood of each season. By good fortune he re-examined Shakespeare's poetry and became intrigued by the vibrant vitality of the texts which became intermingled with the imagery of his own experiences over the course of the year. Chantale premiered the sonata, Caio Pagano took an interest in the work and encouraged DeMars to expand the work as a piano concerto. The music is forthright in its neo-tonal harmonies, at times referencing favorite works (Prokofiev and Brahms). and yet, it is ultimately a personal artifact, the second movement for DeMars? son, the fourth for his wife and the concerto itself dedicated to Caio, his friend and colleague. Mediterranean influences and the vast, dry, desert atmospheres expressed by Albert Camus, have become touchstones of vision and creativity. DeMars admires Camus's cool optimism and is intrigued by his metaphor of the "exile and the kingdom?. These influences become apparent inQuartet for Piano and Strings, an expansive, intuitive, one movement work, in which Native American and Arabic themes provide the mood and atmosphere for a contemplation of our stoic and sensual natures. DeMars worked with these ideas in earlier compositions for piano, cello, African percussion and Native American flute, and performed a draft of the work with clarinetist, Robert Spring on the 1999 Summer Music Festival in Biarritz, France. After several years he returned to these themes and created a new work for piano and string trio, Dedicace originated as an accompaniment to poetry by R. Murray Schaeffer and appeared on DeMars? first recording in Arizona,Desert Songs/Metropolis with composer Glenn Hackbarth. Desert Songs was choreographed by Beth Lessard without poetry for a national national tour of the "a.ludwig dance company", and later a transcription for horn was made for Thomas Bacon.Dedicace is a simple elegy. Tapestry II is a rhapsody, a meditation in one movement. Within the rapid, guitar-like texture, ideas and images emerge as furtive glances, develop in episodes and finally are revealed, as an embrace, and a deep breath of life. The form is related to the alap and jor of the music of south India, and is yet another approach to the sensual optimism and arid desert imagery of Camus. As a novelist may search for "one true sentence", DeMars too hopes to find one true expression of the human condition, one resonant insight of inspiration. Caio Pagano is an internationally recognized concert pianist teacher and scholar. He has been a professor of piano at Arizona State University for fourteen years and recently was selected as a Regents? Professor at that institution. Prior to leaving Brazil and coming to the United States in 1984, Pagano created the piano Department at the University of São Paulo as well as the International Biennial of Music which attracted many internationally acclaimed artists. Pagano has been presented in more than 600 public performances as recital soloist, chamber musician and soloist with orchestra all over 4 continents. He has received several awards in Europe and in his home country. Lire la suite