Rautavaara Lost Landscapes for Violin and Piano

Performed 2016 at Rice University in a Hear and Now Concert by Ling Ling Huang and Wesley Ducote

1. Tanglewood;
2. Ascona;
3. Rainergasse 11, Vienna;
4. West 23rd Street, NY (2005) 21'
for violin and piano

Composer's note:
"The four ‘landscapes’ alluded to in this work were important surroundings for me when studying during my Wanderjahre. My two summers in the US, 1955 and 1956, were spent at the Tanglewood Music Center, where my teachers were Roger Sessions and Aaron Copland. The following year I went to Ascona, Switzerland, to study with Wladimir Vogel, learning 12-tone technique. Reinergasse 11 is the address of the very romantic, decayed baroque Palais Schönburg in Vienna, where in 1955 I studied life and European culture as much as music. West 23rd Street was my last address in New York – the finale of my studies in the US symbolised by a speedy stretta.
All of these ‘landscapes’ are full of memories and atmospheres, visual as well as auditive views – for me they are musical life-themes. The opportunity to develop these themes arose when the deeply
admired soloist Midori honoured me with her request for a new work for violin and piano."- ER