by John Birge, Minnesota Public Radio

October 7, 2011

Pianist Jeffrey Biegel and VocalEssence play with matches

St. Paul, Minn. — It started with a simple request.

Pianist Jeffrey Biegel wanted a new piece for piano, chorus, and orchestra.

Beethoven wrote his Choral Fantasy for that combination; why not a companion piece?

Biegel asked the distinguished composer William Bolcom to compose the work.

Being a choral work, Bolcom needed words. He found them in Byron’s poem Prometheus. Although Byron’s poem is nearly two hundred years old, Bolcom finds in it a very contemporary — and cautionary — tale about modern technology.