Looking
back at the Dream...
It is nearly impossible for me to
wrap my head around the fact that twenty-five years have transpired since the
release of Cristofori’s Dream. This, my seventh full length 1980’s recording on
the Narada label, indeed changed my life and opened a world to me that I had
only hoped for and dreamt about since my teenage years.
So many memories flood my mind as I
look back at this recording and this period of my life. The spark, the divine
seed if you will for Cristofori’s Dream, was found in Judith Oringer’s book,
Passion for the Piano, a gift received from a good friend, and a very
fortuitous gift it turned out to be! In the forward of this book about the
piano and various pianists throughout history, was a dedication to a one,
Bartolomeo Cristofori, ". . . the inventor of the piano. . ."
(excerpt from the new CD's 16 page booklet’s liner notes.)
Re-Envisioning
the Dream...
The goal for this new recording was
to capture the essence of the original album, but with the intimacy,
spontaneity, and the sense of space afforded by a solo piano recording.
The title track is played true to
the original composition, but many of the other pieces have been opened up
leaving room for improvisation and slight variations.
In addition to the original seven
pieces, two live-recorded concert bonus tracks are included:
A live rendition with full orchestra
of Cristofori’s Dream, recorded in Seattle Washington, and the heartfelt
Seoul Improvisation, a solo piano performance recorded in Seoul, Korea.
And I would once again like to say,
as I did in the original 1988 liner notes, “This album is dedicated to
Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731), the inventor of the piano-may his Dream live
forever.”
