Paganini Fantasy For Solo Piano and Winds (New) (2025)
Instrumentation: Level 5 Wind Ensemble + Level 6 Solo Piano
Approx. Running Time: 16:00
The Paganini Fantasy will have its world premiere on June 7th 2026 by the Wellington Wind Symphony.
Composers have long flocked to Paganini’s Caprice No. 24 the way filmmakers flock to Romeo and Juliet or Sherlock Holmes: there always seems to be a new version in the making. It’s not that earlier versions left anything lacking—it’s simply become a rite of passage to take a crack at this tune. And like bears to honey, we’re helpless before its lure: sweet, irresistible, and somehow impossible not to taste for ourselves.
By writing my own set of variations, I join an illustrious (and eclectic) club that includes Brahms, Liszt, Lutosławski, Rachmaninoff, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and even Benny Goodman. Rachmaninoff’s set remains the most famous, with its swooning 18th Variation crossing over into pop culture through the 1980 film Somewhere in Time.
Intimidating company, yes, but to my surprise, I had an unusual amount of fun with this project. The tune proved endlessly pliable, and it led my imagination to some very unexpected corners: a New Orleans funeral march, a French Impressionist countryside, a Prussian ballroom, a Siberian tundra. Along the way, a boogie-woogie episode and even a Harry Potter–tinged variation sneaked themselves in.
Although the Paganini Fantasy is a serious work (arguably my most ambitious yet for wind ensemble) I encourage you to listen with a spirit of play. Follow this mischievous little theme as it globe-trots, shapeshifts, and somehow always escapes unscathed.
Score and Parts will be available for purchase here and at Murphy Music Press following its premiere. A perusal full and piano score can be made available upon request.