Zarabanda

A virtuoso solo piece that combines a gentle Romantic lyricism with the strong rhythmic impulses of the early, South-American ‘zarabanda’. The sarabande as a genre of stylized dance music is usually associated with its slow French variety, but this piece hints at the rhythms of the much faster earlier version that hailed from the South Americas where it was first mentioned in the early 16th century as ‘zarabanda’. Melodically this is an improvisation of sorts on the main motives of the 2nd movement from Brahms’ 2nd sonata for violin and piano, op.100 – that has a comparable rhythm in the ‘Vivace’ sections. An improvisation ‘of sorts’, to be sure: whereas the shapes of Brahms’ motives are rendered in a rather liberal fashion, they are developed within a definitely classical framework.