Reed Tetzloff plays Sancan Mouvement at Mechanics Hall

The French composer Pierre Sancan (1916-2008) is mostly remembered today for his flute music, although he was an acclaimed pianist himself. At the Paris Conservatoire, his students included Michel Béroff, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, and Jean-Phillippe Collard. He composed a piano concerto as well as several showpieces that have gained some popularity as encores, such as his Toccata and this Mouvement. Mouvement is dedicated to the pianist Yves Nat, and it is a relentlessly virtuosic perpetuum mobile, demanding both utmost precision and wild flair. The modal harmony provides a particularly exotic color, and the whimsical middle section races through several tonalities, leading to a climax with the hands crossed well over one another. At the end, the music spins off the rails and crashes to a close with the instruction "attaquer avec la coude et rouler avec l'avant bras"--that is, a glissando played with the elbow and forearm.