Karl Fiorini’s three piano sonatas date from 2017, 2021 and 2025, with the latter having been recently commissioned by pianist Christine Zerafa through a project funded by Arts Council Malta. These three works are coincidentally spaced out equally in four-year intervals and they show contrasting characteristics while also giving us a glimpse into the evolving language of the composer’s piano writing. The first sonata is a three-movement work and is characterized by thematic material in dotted rhythm, chordal textures inspired by jazz, as well as recurring melodic patterns of expanding intervals. The second and third sonatas demonstrate a slight expansion in structure as they explore the four-movement sonata structure. The second sonata was written during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it demonstrates significant depth of melodic and harmonic material particularly in the slow third movement. The composer also starts experimenting with cross-rhythms, a tool that is further developed and expanded in the most recent third Sonata. The variety of cross-rhythms explored in the third sonata present new challenges to the performer, and simultaneously offer the audience an experience of quasi-minimalistic effect on which the subtle melodic material floats seamlessly.
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