Navona records released my Violin Concerto for Strings “Children On The Playground” with violinist Milan Pala and the Brno Contemporary Orchestra under Pavel Snadjr.
My most popular concert work, I’m thrilled that it has finally seen a worldwide, professional release! Milan Pala’s storied emotional range is evident, as he storms through the work like a crazed Peter Pan in the first and last movements, and a yearning angel in the second.
The recording can be found on all major music streaming services, in Dolby Atmos, and as a CD.
More information on this release, including my fellow composers, engineers and producers can be found at Navona Records.
In the first movement, “Joyful Play,” the soloist portrays an eight-year-old alpha kid leading a mini-mob of friends. Each friend is represented by one of the five choirs of the string orchestra. These kids are conjuring up something grand and vivid on a schoolyard or in a park somewhere. The solo violin sparks and inspires the other kids’ imaginations into a hugely dramatic, semi-evil, megalomaniacal glory, so typical of kids. The cadenza brings them back down to reality, and the fun continues. I felt the traditional sonata form suited this story nicely.
The best aspect of “On the Playground,” a de facto 15-minute concerto for violin and string chamber orchestra, was its bracing musical language. Mr. Lay has a distinctive compositional voice. – Anthony Tommasini, NYTimes
2. Yearning
While creating the second movement, “Yearning,” I remembered my own adolescent feelings of melancholy. I’d seek refuge via rapturous escape in the sky. The luminous sonority of high strings in diatonic clusters is like high-altitude clouds and provides a setting for the long, sweeping solo phrases seeking a soaring deliverance.
… But what makes the music sound up-to-date and not like some pastiche comes from Mr. Lay’s penchant for fracturing phrases. Just when a spiraling melody dancing atop a jaunty rhythmic pattern takes off, it discombobulates into jagged bits and pieces. – Anthony Tommasini, NYTimes
3. Follow The Leader
The last movement, “Follow the Leader,” is, as it sounds, a fast frolic. The solo violin cajoles and sometimes runs away from the group, who chase a single step behind. Each string choir imitates the soloist, but entrances are carefully timed to avoid one stepping on the other. This produces a close, stretto canon, like a flock of finches in flight. Each chase ends in happy chaos, thus providing a clear outline of a rondo form. If you listen, you’ll find out if they caught the leader or not.
For the 2022 recording with Milan Palá, I composed a new introduction to this movement that neither Tamas, Cenovia or Alex never saw. It does a better job of introducing the theme. Beginning as an attaca mini-cadenza out of the high solo harmonic which ends the previous movement, it rises to the most delicate highest heights available to a violin, and falls to its lowest. The string quartet heard in “Yearning” help him up and together the build momentum that kindles the whole ensemble to a chase.
