Too Hot Toccata (1996)
INSTRUMENTATION: 2(pic).2.1(Ebcl)+bcl.2/2.2(pictpt).0.0/2[=3]perc/pf/str
DURATION: 6 Minutes
Grant Park Orchestra
Carlos Kalmar, conductor
Carlos Kalmar, conductor
Commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra with funding by Susan M. Halby in honor of her father, John M. Musser.
I considered Too Hot Toccata to be a kind of farewell to my [St. Paul Chamber Orchestra] Residency, but not as a farewell to the Orchestra. This work features just about all of the principal players and treats all of the various orchestra sections as soloists. There is also a horribly difficult honky-tonk piano solo, as well as a fiendish clarinet solo and a big part for the piccolo trumpet, in addition to a lot of virtuoso percussion writing. The music is a little hyperactive — very high energy and quite out of control, but with a slower middle section for balance.
— Aaron Jay Kernis
Work themes: Jazz & Pop