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As a postlude to our SOMERS SONATA PENTAD (October 2026), Piano Lunaire concludes the Harry Somers centenary with lesser known and even unpublished piano music from the Canadian composer. The Four Solitudes of 1947 have never been performed nor recorded in the 21st century. Adam Sherkin takes up the challenge, also featuring music by two living Somers' devotees: biographer, distinguished composer Brian Cherney and conductor/producer/composer, Isaac Page.

Cherney (b. 1942) wrote an authoritative biography of Somers published in 1975 and continues to be the leading expert on the late composer. Cherney's own contribution to the keyboard repertory has been significant, varied and consistently first-rate. Adam Sherkin offers the Toronto premiere of Cherney's evocative and moon-inspired "Nachtstücke."

Isaac Page (b. 1996) has already established himself as a young artist to watch with a varied career as both assistant producer at CBC and conductor-composer in Canada and the USA. His fourteen miniatures, Preludes from the Black Swamp, pair aptly with Harry Somer's last pieces for solo piano, Nothing Too Serious (1997). The titles of Page's pieces evoke images of the Creature from the Black Lagoon but are indeed a reference to where he lived at the time of composition (early days of the COVID Pandemic, 2020): Ohio's Bowling Green, located in the Great Black Swamp. 🌸 🌕


PROGRAMME

SET 1:
 

Harry Somers: Four Solitudes (1947)*

Brian Cherney: Nachtstücke (Six Miniatures for Piano, 2011)

SET 2:
 

Isaac Page: Preludes from the Black Swamp (Fourteen Miniatures for Piano, 2020)

I. A Question
II. Tumble
III. Another Question
IV. Passepied
V. The Tides
VI. Homage a Glenn Gould
VII. Badinerie
VIII. Chorale
IX. Gavotte
X. One More Question
XI. Lullaby
XII. Libbey
XIII. Bergamasca
XIV. Prayer
 

Harry Somers: Nothing Too Serious (1997)

I. It goes something like this…
II. Sky blue, - Deep blue
III. Uptight
IV. Somewhere in the Balkans
V. Alternating currents
VI. Debussy
VII. Who said it was easy?
 

* Premiere

 

Seating is limited to 40 so please purchase tickets in advance as is possible.