DESCRIPTION

“Czech Inspired” is one of many wonderful CDs that Red Cedar Chamber Music has produced on the Fleur de Son Classics label. This CD contains a number of new works for flute, viola, and guitar, all of which have been written in tribute to Czech culture.

Among these new works is “Spillville Variations on a Theme by Dvořák,” for which Red Cedar Chamber Music commissioned a group of fifteen composers to contribute individual variations, all based on the main theme from the Scherzo movement of Dvořák's “American” Quartet, Opus 96.

My contribution to this piece is Variation no. 10 — a lively fugue based on the original theme.

To learn more about the “Spillville Variations” and to hear sound clips, click here.

AVAILABILITY

“Spillville Variations on a Theme by Dvořák” can be heard in its entirety on Red Cedar's “Czech Inspired“ CD.

You can order this CD from Amazon.

REVIEWS

John Dowdall, Red Cedar Music:

“Peter Bloesch's music is exhilarating and fun! The variation he provided us for 'Spillville Variations on a Theme by Dvořák' sparkles with a savory mix of Baroque fugal technique and a sense of Hollywood bravura and dramatic climax.

Peter's ability to achieve a fullness of sound with the modest forces of flute, viola, and guitar — while also employing a broad palette of harmonic and contrapuntal elements — is really quite astonishing and totally satisfying!”

— John Dowdall, Guitarist and Former Artistic Director of Red Cedar Chamber Music

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Gramophone Magazine:

“[The 'Spillville Variations' piece] has obviously struck a rich compositional vein. The composers gathered here rise to the occasion and do justice to both their honoree and their performers.

From the respective canon and fugue of Peter Hamlin and Peter Bloesch to the dance inspirations of Lyle Dockendorff's 'Spillville Waltz,' ... these miniatures balance distinctive gravitas with a certain lightness of touch.

From beginning to end, this collection teases the ear but delivers the kind of musical pay-off that all light music should strive for.”

— Ken Smith, Gramophone Magazine