Pure Contraption, Absolute Gift

A commission by 13 individual pianists, Pure Contraption, Absolute Gift is a suite of five movements, which Primosch describes in depth on his blog, Secret Geometry. While the first movement is contained primarily to the bass clef, the second is in the treble. The suite, however, as an entirety, makes full use of the entire range of the keyboard. For advanced pianists. "The piece is ferociously difficult...Both the first prelude, with its nervous thumping and banging, and 'A Gracious Dance,' Debussy a century later, ended in question marks. The 'Gigue-Scherzo' seemed more of a 'Scherzo-Gigue', 'Nocturnal Obsessions,' with its moody left-hand ostinatos, lived up to itstitle. 'Contraption' evoked jazz at first, but soon [the pianist's] hands were speaking different languages." --Jeffrey Gantz, The Boston Globe