In both of the pieces I’ve shared with you this week, the piano (or the harpsichord) has figured heavily in the instrumentation. And today is no different. Only this piece is from last year, and unreleased as yet. Perhaps I shouldn’t be sharing it, but it warrants the attention.

Jon Carlo Bruttomesso – String Sonata: Movement 3[play]

This piece was composed by a dear dear friend of mine, and it is drastically unlike most of his other work. Bruttomesso is a skilled composer, but often his work is too cerebral for people to empathize with. It is the kind of music that you don’t understand for the first three listens, and then you can’t get out of your head. Each time you hear a piece after that epiphany, it unfolds a new layer, bringing magnificent visions to life.

This piece is different only in the way it pulls the listener directly into its inner world. As soon as it begins you start to feel the stark emotions and the stuttering pain that the song sings of. We are guided through a darkening landscape, evading boulders strewn in our path, racing like hellfire towards something vastly important and frightening.

And I adore the piano, I love how real it sounds and how I can imagine sitting in a concert hall staring in fascination at the player’s hands flying across the keys, perfectly in time with his arpeggios as the strings surge back in for the finale. The song leaves me with a feeling of accomplishment and wonder, and that is the mark of not only a great classical piece, but a great song.