Dusan Bogdanovic
Les Productions D’Oz: 11 pages
With over fifty compositions in print, as well as almost 20 recordings available, this Yugoslavian – born composer is in great demand, writing not only guitar works but commissioned to write a ballet for a dance company, and piano works, to name but two others.
The opening Prelude starts with a flourish of two hue arpeggiated chords that really set the scene, before two highly diversely rhythmed themes cross over each other in what can only be described as highly rhythmically diverse , and chromatic in harmony. Mixtures of harmonics and real tones crop up a number of times, and after more huge arpeggios, as in the opening a final Lento takes the piece to its swift close after only 16 bars.
The Toccata is the main movement here and its 7/8, although marked Moderato moves swiftly as a result of the small note -values of the majority of the movement .The two contrasting voices gallop all over the fingerboard leaving no room for any relaxing until there is a four – bar reminder of the opening of the Prelude, before the Toccata returns, this time really gathering momentum resulting in climactic chords over running semi-quavers. This then suddenly melds into yet one more reminder of the Prelude, before an accelerando gradually takes over and the piece closes on a fortissimo chord of harmonic notes mixed with actual notes.
This piece is advanced and not for any player of less technical ability. The harmonic style is never atonal, but highly chromatic as with much of this writer’s music, and there are two wonderful performances of this piece on YouTube, should any player want to see what is involved.
Chris Dumigan
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