Leonovich - Short Pieces from Old Notebooks for Cello and Piano

Short Pieces were composed in July and August 2006 in Cleveland, shortly after the composer completed two large concertos, including his completion of Tchaikovsky’s Cello Concerto. After working in large forms, these pieces became a way to explore concise musical expression rather than trying to fill traditional sonata forms with themes and development. Since 2006, this kind of concentrated expression has remained central to the composer’s musical language.

The pieces are connected in different ways to the composer’s last two years of high school and first two years of college. Friska began as a Theory 4 assignment exploring a synthetic mode and a redefined tonic-dominant relationship. Valse lent, also written for that class, focuses on the whole-tone scale and planing. The Prelude and Fugue were extracted from the Sonata for Violin and Cello, Op. 56, composed when the composer was nineteen. The Valse reimagines the first movement of A Wandering Klezmer for solo clarinet, Op. 55. The Passacaglia was first sketched in a practice room on staff paper printed with Garfield the Cat, while the Kolomyjka draws on a Ukrainian folk dance and a humorous song about cats loving to eat fish. The Tarantella and Freilach also come from early concerto finales.

The Tarantella was originally intended to close the set, but after the composer received news of the death of his friend and mentor Cantor Stephen Dubov, he added the Freilach in Dubov’s memory. Dubov was the first person to introduce him to klezmer music, and the composer played clarinet and cello in his Kidz Klez Band of Michigan. The Freilach is based on the chant “Avinu Malkeinu,” traditionally sung on Yom Kippur.

These short pieces are suitable for intermediate cellists and work well for lessons, recitals, studio classes, and programs featuring concise character pieces, klezmer influence, Ukrainian dance elements, and contemporary cello writing. A video of the Freilach may be heard here: https://youtu.be/hBZ1imGVHEg

ASTA level: 2.5–3