Concertos and word games

I have spent the majority of my life being busy and overstretched, so nothing tells me “things are back!!!” like feeling stressed once again! The past few weeks have had me going “oh no oh no oh no how am I going to get everything done” which, while not pleasant per se, is a nice-ish change from 2+ years of going “when will my career come back from the war.”

The Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel concerto project continues trucking along, and I wish I could share every little update with you all, but 1) that would not be cool to Patricia and 2) I don’t know if anyone will be as psyched about repeated iterations of the same passage as I am.

In other concerto news, Samantha Ege this week is premiering a newly orchestrated version of an almost-lost piano concerto by Helen Hagan. This Washington Post article is a really great summary of the project. And next month, the LA Phil premieres a piano concerto arranged from Florence Price’s Fantasie Nègre No. 1.

I find this all very curious and promising, because these premieres indicate precedence—and hopefully, demand!—for the concept of new piano concertos based on the works of marginalized composers. A little naysaying voice in my brain has perpetually gone “what if this concept is really weird, though?” with the FMH concerto project and evidence is emerging that the concept is totally not weird!