Around the Cauldron
For violin, cello, piano (2016)
Length: 14 minutes
Commissioned by Concert Artists Guild with support from the Adele and John Gray Endowment Fund.
This performance:
Lysander Piano Trio
Itamar Zorman, violin
Liza Stepanova, piano
Michael Katz, cello
About the piece
Around the Cauldron was inspired by the three witches from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth. With a nod to multi-movement pieces such as Schumann's Scenes From Childhood and Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition, Around the Cauldron is comprised of seven short scenes, each of which evokes a mood that resonates with an image of three witches gathered around a cauldron in a dark forest, muttering spells, and adding selected creatures to a bubbling stew. The movements carry individual titles: "In Dusk," "Pounce," “Transmutation,” “Boiling,” "Witches Waltz," “Newts’ Lament,” and “Sacrificial.” Most of the melodies in the piece were tailored to fit lines from the original Shakespearean text and were also arranged as songs for a production of Macbeth at Ramapo College of New Jersey. Thus, the main theme sets the play’s immortal opening words: “Fair is foul and foul is fair / Hover through the fog and filthy air.” Honoring the three witches, the piece reflects the number three in its rhythms, which highlight groups of three beats; in its themes, which are constructed of three phrases; and in its instrumentation, which suggests that each instrument represents a different witch.
Selected Performances:
• Carnegie’s Weill Hall (New York): Lysander Piano Trio
• Clark Memorial Library UCLA (CA): Lysander Piano Trio
• Richardson Auditorium (Princeton, NJ): : Lysander Piano Trio
• Kravis Center (West Palm Beach, FL): Lysander Piano Trio
• University of Wyoming (Laramie, WY): Lysander Piano Trio
• Detroit Institute of Arts (MI): Lysander Piano Trio
• University of South Alabama (Mobile, AL): Lysander Piano Trio
• Pro Musica San Miguel de Allende Mexico: Lysander Piano Trio
• Israeli Conservatoire of Music (Israel): Israeli Chamber Project
• Central Chamber Series (New York, NY): Lysander Piano Trio
• Club musical de Québec (Canada): Israeli Chamber Project
