Epitaph
Sonata no. 2 for piano

The composer sees his "Epitaph" Sonata – written between the years 1974-1979 – as a musical document embodying much of his personal credo. In the course of its single movement the work encompasses a wide range of textures, moods and sonorities. The term 'Sonata' refers here to the scope and the lyrical and dramatic content of the music and not to its formal structure which is essentially free. The excerpts about the fountain and the heart of the world from one the tales of Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav, 'The Story of the Seven Beggars', Serves as the work's moto. The story is not used as a basis for 'programme' music, however, but is merely the spiritual starting-point – an idea in which more is concealed than is revealed, as it were. Epitaph was premiered in Freiburg, Germany, in April 1980, by the Israeli pianist Varda Nishry who also gave its Israeli premiere in Tel Aviv, in july 1980. The work was awarded the ACUM Prize 1981, Sponsoring Publication of Works.