(2007)
Commissioned by the Fonds voor de Scheppende Toonkunst. Written for Wyneke Jordans and Leo van Doeselaar.
Recently I sat down at the piano for an hour and played through a thick collection of Robert Schumann’s short pieces. Strange but true: in modern music one hardly ever comes across a character piece. This observation gave me the idea of writing a commissioned work for piano four hands as a collection of short pieces entitled Dream Leaves. Anything can happen in a dream – this realization gave me a wonderful feeling of freedom during the composition process. Robert Schumann: thanks.
1. Falling asleep restlessly.
2. Dream drops.
3. Dream of the girl at the spinning wheel.
4. Dream of the beloved who cannot agree.
5. Impatient watchman of dreams.
6. Dé-jà-entendu dream.
7. Merry-go-round of nightly thoughts.
8. Last sweet dream of life.
World premiere: July 27th 2008 in the Kleine Zaal of the Concertgebouw/Amsterdam during the Robeco series (5 movements).
First performance complete cycle: October 26th 2008 in the Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ.
For part #4 a grand piano with a middle pedal is required.