Nikolai Korndorf - Triptych - Lament (Part 1 of 3)

Triptych for Cello and Piano by Nikolai Korndorf Part 1 of 3 Triptych - Lament, Response, Glorification for cello and piano is performed by cellist Ariel Barnes and pianist Anna Levy at the May 29, 2011 concert hosted by the Yarilo Music Society commemorating the tenth anniversary of Korndorf's passing. Nikolai Korndorf's Triptych for Cello and Piano dates from 1998, and is the result of a commission from then director of the Langley School of Music, cellist Ian Hampton. The work was composed around the same time as his perhaps most successful orchestral work: The Smile of Maud Lewis, with which it shares some thematic material. In that regard, Triptych belongs to the same complex of musical compositions as his earlier Con Sordino for strings and Lullaby for two pianos, all of which display minimalist elements. Korndorf was a master of the musical narrative, and the three movements of Triptych titled Lament, Response and Glorification, do indeed tell a story. According to Hampton, upon relaying to Korndorf of the plight of a good friend's daughter wrongfully incarcerated in a Brazilian jail, the first movement Lament was composed as a musical response to the annual vigil kept by the girl's parents.