Commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra with funding by Susan M. Halby in honor of her father, John M. Musser

  • 2(pic).2.1(Ebcl)+bcl.2/2.2(pictpt).0.0/2[=3]perc/pf/str
  • 6 min

Programme Note

Composer note
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


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