Everything Waits for the Lilacs [PDF Music Book License] (1996)
Instrumentation: | Piano Solo [Advanced] |
Genre: | Piano Music |
Commissioner: Piano Six (Janina Fialkowska)
Premiere: Janina Fialkowska, piano, numerous performances in British Columbia, Fall, 1997
Duration: 6 minutes
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Everything Waits For The Lilacs was commissioned in 1996 by PIANO SIX, a group of Canadian concert pianists that included at the time: Angela Cheng, Janina Fialkowska, Marc André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt, André Laplante and Jon Kimura Parker. Individually these artists have dedicated a ten-day period in their annual calendar to present a series of recitals, school concerts and master classes in communities that would otherwise not have an opportunity, or at least only rarely, to interact with international concert starts. This group has also endeavoured to promote Canadian music by actively performing and commissioning music written by a wide selection of Canadian composers.
Everything Waits For The Lilacs is a brief, evocative work that captures the anticipation of spring. The title is borrowed from the Margaret Avison poem, “Thaws,” which is found in her collection of poetry entitled, Sunblue. The Canadian climate is such that it seems possible to define the moment when winter releases it grasp and the first blossoms unfold. Or perhaps it is simply that the Canadian psyche reaches the point when it cannot bear the snow-bound landscape any longer and the awareness of the shifting season becomes heightened. In any case, the music echoes appropriately with a strong sense of longing and desire.
Everything Waits For The Lilacs is gratefully dedicated to Dorothy Hare, a piano teacher in Calgary who was influential in the development of the composer’s musicianship and training. The work was given its premiere performances by Janina Fialkowska during her fall tour of British Columbia in 1997.
The complete Margaret Avison poem is as follows:
“Thaws”
From Sunblue by Margaret Avison © Copyright 1978 by Lancelot Press, Hantsport, Nova Scotia. Used by Permission.
There is a fine YouTube video of Scott Meek playing this work: