Recitative to an Absent Sky
for 'cello
By Gregory Mertl
American
American
Recitative to an Absent Sky (1999) is a dramatic monologue for solo cello, impassioned and emotionally fluid like its often highly charged operatic counterpart. Beginning in a state of restless agitation, the piece gains increasing lyricism, and subsides into a desolate quiet. Yet it explores many different emotional territories along the way. A substantial challenge to the cellist, he must articulate the work’s dramatic shape while executing passages of formidable virtuosity. Recitative to an Absent Sky was written for and is dedicated with affection to Florent Renard-Payen.
Other works by Gregory Mertl:
“It is thus possible to create a tradition that is held together by strict rules, and that is also successful, to some extent. But is it desirable to support such a tradition to the exclusion of everything else?...These are questions I intend to ask...And to these questions my answer will be a firm and resounding NO.
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--Paul K. Feyerabend, Against Method