Israel Lai – First Impressions, for piano quintet (2024)

Описание: Premiered on 22 March 2024, with the PlayMud String Quartet, in the International Anthony Burgess Foundation. Commissioned by PlayMud.

Israel Lai, piano
Michael Fung, violin
Kishi Li, violin
James Cheung, viola
Jackie Choi, cello

First Impressions was written as a musical response to early 20th-century French works, featured in PlayMud's concert of the same name.

It juxtaposes the ideas behind Impressionism with our personal experience of forming first impressions. Day in and day out, we are constantly forming and reforming our impressions of each and every person we meet, starting with their appearance, and developing with our understanding of their personality.

This piece is a musical representation of that process: it first gives incomplete glimpses into the underlying harmonies, allowing the listener to form their own musical interpretation. Gradually, more and more of the hidden harmonies are revealed, challenging the listener to question their own impressions.

In the meantime, the harmonies grow tighter and more interconnected, as they flow into each other increasingly smoothly. Ultimately, the piece asks the questions: did the opening give the correct first impressions? Does it matter if our first impressions are wrong?

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