Composer’s Note:

I composed the Rhapsody for violin and piano for violinist Juliana Athayde in late 2010 and early 2011, right after her stunning performance of my Violin Concerto with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. The premiere was given in Rochester at a benefit concert for the RPO board, with Juliana Athayde, violin and Joseph Werner piano. Juliana and I subsequently performed the work at Bennington College the following year. The rhapsodic character is most present in the first movement, which is intense, moody and virtuosic. The Allegretto sustains the intensity in a driving, dance-like movement that owes something to the scherzo of my violin concerto. The concluding Adagio is a chaconne that brings resolution in a kind of spiritual lyricism harkening back to the Baroque.