English pianist, writer, and composer Melanie Spanswick wears many hats. She performs, she composes, she interviews pianists, she reviews music for magazines, and she blogs.
And she had some very nice things to say about some of my music.
"American composer and teacher Rick Robertson has written a whole library of works for the piano. Ariettaand Nuit d'etoilesare late intermediate level pieces (for Grades 5-7), ad are both melodically interesting and eminently playable. Nuit d'etoiles (Starry Night)reflects impressionistic colours with 'Ravelian' sweeps and a dreamily expressive melody. Ariettaconsists of bold thematic material, which is split between the hands, and accompanied by chords, building to a resounding climax; this is a passionate, beautiful piece.
Ms. Spanswick, I am honored.
This is "my" blog and not "hers", but even though I'm doing this to promote me, me, me - I would like to say that I have purchased a copy of her "Digressions" for piano - and I like them very much. Perhaps if I get my general-piano blog revved up again, I'll go into them in a little more detail.
Arietta (July 29 and 30,
2006) Slow moving melody over dense and somewhat
dissonant accompaniment, with just a hint of countermelody making its way known here and there. In my
hyper-romantic vein but much less difficult than its predecessors. (Romance in D Flat, for example.) Dedicated to Emily Moe, who was responsible
for bringing my work to the attention of Elyse Mach, and the resulting
publication. First performance on August
6, 2006 – as an offertory for my first Sunday at Franklin (Georgia) United Methodist
Church.
Atlanta-area pianist George Mann gave the
first public performance of this work in a recital in Cedartown, Georgia in
December 2006. He played it several
times during his 2006-2007 concert season.
I attended a performance in Carrollton, as well as a performance at
LaGrange College on October 4, 2007.
After the LaGrange performance he wrote me saying, “I'm glad you were
pleased [with] the Arietta performance. After playing this piece for about a
year, I haven't tired of it in the slightest. I could go on and on about the
different things I love in this piece...”
I performed this at Tiffany Oliver Cole's wedding in June 2008. Of all my
compositions, this was the one she requested.
On November 30, 2008, Pat Walters McCuiston
made a video (using my newly-acquired Flipcam) of me playing the Arietta. It was posted to YouTube on April 10, 2009 –
the first video to be posted on my “channel”.
Susie Francis Dempsey has also added this
to her repertoire, having performed it in her studio recitals, at weddings, and
at teacher workshops. She performed it
in a studio recital on May 9, 2009, and I have a copy of the video.
And here is a performance from a "Meet the Composer" workshop on November 21, 2015 on the campus of Jacksonville State University, sponsored by the Northeast Alabama Music Teachers Association. This is the first time, believe it or not, that I have played it on a nine-foot grand, and my first performance at JSU since 1984.
This also exists in an (as yet unpublished) arrangement for SATB chorus and oboe obbligato, entitled “Agnus Dei”, which was first performed on March 21, 2006 by the Epiphany Episcopal Church Choir (Leeds, Alabama) under the direction of Roanoke native Joyce Neighbors. In lieu of oboe, the obbligato was played by clarinetist Kristian Latta. In this form it is a tribute to the memory of my theory professor William Jerryl Davis, who was the closest thing to a composition teacher that I ever had.
