ADAGIO FOR THANKSGIVING

ADAGIO FOR THANKSGIVING

This beautiful Adagio is one of 24 new pieces for piano, entitled “The Wolf-Tempered Clavier” by Hungarian composer Péter Wolf. My first piano teacher, Veronika Wolf Cohen (cousin of Péter), suggested I look at the score. Instantly I recognized how special it is, and I am in good company. Péter’s WTC will soon be published by Universal Music, and has been described by one critic as one of the most important new piano compositions of the 21st century.

The gift of this music from my first teacher brought back many tender memories of my earliest piano lessons, aged 4. How much I owe to an extraordinary muse who changed the entire course and possibility of my own life.

And I feel too, that the mood of this piece perfectly fits the sentiments of our time, when there is indeed much sorrow in our country. I played it in solace for the people of Squirrel Hill, the California wildfires, the Pulse Nightclub, and of course for my LGBTQ siblings with whom I unite in the long quest for civil rights.

Every once in a while, a very rare while indeed, a piece of music comes along so integrally beautiful that it touches many levels of evocation. In gratitude and hope, this lovely Adagio by Péter Wolf I share with you all at this important time of Thanksgiving.

The video was created by Hugh Sung, and shot in my Temple University studio in Philadelphia.

You can read more about Péter Wolf here:
http://www.artisjus.hu/wolfpeter/english.html