Toccata

A fragment or two of this piece languished in various cupboards and drawers from 1986 until 1996, when the kindly interest of its eventual dedicatee, Marc-André Hamelin, and the announcement of a section for short piano solo works in the 1997 Prokofiev Composing Competition in Moscow conspired jointly to get the job finally done. The music seeks to offer pyrotechnical interest worthy of such a formidable virtuoso while still achieving a degree of substance and musical argument. The American pianist Frederic Chiu gave the Toccata its British première at the 1999 Pianoworks Festival in London. It was taken up in 2003 by the Canada-based Azerbaijani virtuoso Alexander Tselyakov (www.tselyakov.com), who presented it at the Wigmore Hall and on BBC Radio Three in that year before performing it on tour across Canada and the USA, and who recorded it on his own CD label, Golomb Recordings, in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: GLCD 5701-4 (a minor revision has since been made to the end of the piece). The Toccata has been performed with no less distinction by the fine British pianist Julian Hellaby.