1. Symphonic Pentad for Orchestra (1964)
Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della Radiotelevisione Italiana, Foro Italico, Rome, F. Scaglia, Conductor — September, 1967.
2. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1968)
Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma della Radiotelevisione Italiana, Foro Italico, Rome, E. Gracis, Conductor; Composer as soloist — September, 1968.
Composed while Cotel was living in Rome as a winner of the American Rome Prize. In Cotel’s own words:
“The piano has a rigidly constructed opening cadenza in which the basic material of the piece is laid out. Then the orchestra enters, little by little, in a much more free kind of structuring — they’re not concerned with the durational aspect of the piece, and they’re not concerned with synchronizing, and the result is that they begin to pull elements away from the soloist.
Eventually, the piano has nothing left but isolated pitches, and the orchestra covers it over and there’s no solo part at all. At that midpoint in the piece, the conductor takes over; the piano can no longer control the sonic events. And the pianist tries, by loosening the compositional controls, to regain some kind of rapport with the orchestral element. But the orchestra is always one jump ahead of the piano. They’re always a little bit more free, a little bit more loose, a little more chaotic, and eventually the piano part gets totally covered over.
All the separate elements in the score, instead of coming together in the end, begin to pull apart — there’s a kind of entropic quality to this music. And each of the individual elements becomes lost – the elements become submerged in a kind of orchestral indeterminateness. And at the point of maximum chaos, the piece cuts off. There’s no resolution.”
3. Variations on a Theme by Haydn for Orchestra (1973)
Kol Israel Symphony Orchestra, recorded at Israel Broadcasting Authority; Sergiu Comissiona conducting, Jerusalem — June, 1973.
In Cotel’s own words: “In my late twenties, when I was in the throes of atonal writing, I thought, ‘wouldn’t it be interesting to write a set of variations on a well known classical theme.’ I took the Andante from the Haydn Surprise Symphony, and I did a set of variations for orchestra, backwards. Instead of starting simple and getting more and more complex, it starts with a conductor who comes out and gives a downbeat, the orchestra goes crazy, and you don’t know what’s going on. And then in the course of the variations, it gets more and more ordered, more and more tonal, and at the end, Hayden’s theme emerges. I started with total complexity, then it gets more and more simple. This was in 1972, at the very beginning of what became known as the return to tonality.”
Performed here by the Peabody Concert Orchestra, Edward Polochik conducting, 2001.
Recording above ®2024, The Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
4. Harmony of the World for String Orchestra (1975)
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Sergiu Comissiona conducting.
Lyric Theatre, Baltimore, Maryland — December 3rd & 4th, 1980.
5. Trope for Orchestra (1994-1995)
This orchestral piece draws thematically from the musical phrases in traditional Jewish cantillation for reading Torah.
6. Mews’ Muse for Orchestra (1999)
Based upon the award-winning piano composition that came into being when Cotel’s cat Ketzel walked across the piano, this whimsical and musically-rich piece imagines a cat walking across the orchestra.
Moshe Cotel 