Complete solo piano fantasies and short pieces of Yehudi Wyner

Renowned Canadian American composer Yehudi Wyner (b. 1929) has received numerous honors, including the Pulitzer Prize, two Guggenheim Fellowships, the Rome Prize, a Grammy Award, and the Stoeger Prize given by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for his lifetime contribution to chamber music. While prominent pianists of our time—including Marc-André Hamelin, Angela Hewitt and Robert Levin—have premiered and performed several of his solo piano works, his many other piano compositions are not well known. This recording project introduces pianists and music lovers to Wyner’s complete solo piano fantasies and short pieces.

The recording thesis mainly consists of two parts. The first part provides a professional audio recording of Easy Suite (1949), Three Short Fantasies (1963-1971), New Fantasies (1991), Post Fantasies (1993-2001), A Little Late Music (2002-2014), and Fantasia on B.A.C.H. (second version 2014, revised 2020). The second part is a written document discussing the composer’s biographical information, musical styles and descriptions of individual works. The author’s two interviews with the composer are also included. These selected collections of short pieces range from his earliest to most recent compositions and reflect his immersion in a wide range of musical styles. Wyner’s music combines various experimental compositional techniques with more common classical, jazz and popular music styles, making it appealing to general audiences. In addition, the chosen works present contrasts in character and dramatic changes in mood; rhythmic vitality; technical brilliance; and lyricism: qualities that will draw the attention of pianists to the piano works of Yehudi Wyner.