Triple Concerto

“The piano trio is not an easy soloist to work with,” says Willem Jeths about his Triple Concerto. “As a musical entity, the piano trio is, in fact, already complete and whole: violin, cello and piano together form a mini orchestra.” Jeths, who has composed a wide range of solo concerti for accordion, violin, flugelhorn, piano, recorder, and other instruments, was inspired to write a Triple Concerto.
His solution settled on a small orchestra consisting of three wind instruments (clarinet, bassoon, and horn), string orchestra and percussion versus the piano trio. Among the unusual percussion items are watergongs (gongs designed to be dropped carefully into a bucket filled with water, producing a beautiful glissando effect) and cowbells, which are swung with an outstretched arm.
Overall Jeths’ Triple Concerto is built on a recognizable motive consisting of fifth intervals (the open strings of violin and cello, for example), plus their related overtone series. Jeths quotes important “fifth-moments” from two modern violin concerti by Alban Berg and Igor Stravinsky. His Triple Concerto also has a philosophical starting point: the idea that multiplicity seeks unity, that two like to become one. Musically speaking, violin and cello want to blend in this work. By contrast, the piano is the seducer, instigating activity and the one who reconciles opposing forces.

(c) Jason Stell