• Richard Danielpour
  • Mirrors (Piano Concerto No. 4) (2009)

  • Associated Music Publishers Inc (World)
  • 2(pic).2(ca).2(bcl).2/2.2.2.0/timp.2perc/hp/str (12.10.8.6.5 players minimum)
  • Piano
  • 22 min

Programme Note


First performance:
Jeffrey Biegel, piano
Pacific Symphony
Carl St. Clair, conductor
February 25, 2010

I have always loved writing for the piano, but with the passing years, after having written three piano concertos, my devotion to the more traditional format and modus operandi of the “Piano Concerto” had become less attractive to me. Even back as far as 2000 with my third concerto “Zodiac Variations” written for the left hand in 13 movements, I had been reaching for another way to make sense of the relationship between the piano and orchestra in my work.

Enter “Mirrors,” a 22 minute five movement suite for piano and orchestra which uses personality archetypes as points of departure for the prevailing character of each movement. The piece is called Mirrors because of the internal (and external) conversation between the piano and orchestra which is present throughout. The piano represents the more private, internal aspects of the character in question while the orchestra gives voice to a more public side. And sometimes, the private and the public come together as one. The work is also called Mirrors because these archetypes are within us, and various themes find their way into each of the five movements, giving voice to the notion of the “I that is We.”

Mirrors was composed throughout the summer of 2009 for Jeffery Biegel, an old friend and classmate, from my days at the Julliard School.

-Richard Danielpour, December 2009


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