Tom JOHNSON
An Hour for piano

A work i dreamt to record since i listened to Andrew Lee very haunting recording.
Curiously, even with the numerous time i listened to his recording, I never performed it live, on the other hand, i performed many time the crazy Chord Catalogue (that will be released in november 2022).
But it is when i started practicing it seriously for this recording that i discovered that the right pedal was to be kept for 1 entire hour ! Means ... only 1 long continous take possible !!!

My best memory of this piece also came from the 1st Le Mans 24 Hours Pianoactambule festival : i was performing 24 hours Vexations, and in the middle of the night, my friend (the fantastic composer) Melaine Dalibert performed Johnson's 1 hour ... The 2 pieces musically matched so much ! It was such a fantastic experience !

From the music itself : after a long moment, it starts to bloom in the most fantastic manner, and some Satiesque suspended melody appears !

 

The composer himself wrote a very funny (dada like) introductive paper that I can not share here (at it is too long!), we added it on the booklet notes of course !

I really hope you will enjoy it as much as i enjoyed recording this fantastic piece !!!