“Up” to be Released as a Recording this Friday

Cover of the album being discussed (from its Amazon.com Web page)

Those with long memories may recall that pianist Sarah Cahill presented the world premiere performance of Riley Nicholson’s “Up” at the first Faculty Artist Series recital for the academic year at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) in September of 2022. He had composed the work for two pianos and Cahill performed it with her colleague Regina Myers, both of whom had commissioned the work. When I wrote about this event, I commended Nicholson for “the intense flow of differing phrase structures with occasional quiet interludes to keep the attentive listener from the fatigue of sorting out all those differences.”

This Friday, “Up” will be given its first release on recording. Cahill and Myers made that recording at SFCM in 2024. As is so often the case, Amazon.com has already created a Web page for pre-ordering the album, which will be available for MP3 download. I was fortunate enough to be able to listen to this in advance, and I was impressed by the quality of reproduction of the thick textures of this keyboard music.

When I downloaded the tracks for this album to prepare for writing this article, the download also included a brief program note. Sadly, that note was not included on the Amazon.com download page. My guess is that the note was prepared by Nicholson himself. As a result, I feel it is only fair to reproduce his own comments for the sake of those that might be interested in listening to the recording:

Up's one unifying theme is simply that, "up". The piece moves 'up' in so many directions: literally, opening with an upward motif that gets pinged between pianos in a groovy, dizzying counterpoint; gradually with increasing frequency moving up the circle of fifths; with upbeat syncopations and tempi; constantly one upping itself with a burgeoning energy that trips over itself with virtuosic fits; and many other upward motions and themes. Loosely akin to a theme and variations, each movement is a different interpretation of the theme "up", and given the frenetic energy of every moment, tranquil interludes provide a necessary buffer the movements, and give the performers a chance to catch their breath. Even with the addition of these palette cleansing interludes, the entirety of the work is a manic trip that both explores joyous energy and that darker underbelly of positivity when energy and motion become simply too much to be contained.