Martin Rokeach, Composer
Running at the Top of the World trumpet & piano [2012]
Program Notes
The commissioning of Running at the Top of the World was made possible by a consortium between the following musicians: James Ackley (University of South Carolina), Michael Anderson (Oklahoma City University), Bryan Appleby-Wineberg (Rowan University), Stephen Burns (international soloist), Jack Burt (University of Maine at Orono), Vincent DiMartino (Centre College), Jean-Christophe Dobrzelewski (West Chester University of Pennsylvania), Robert Skoniczin (University of Delaware) and Mark Wilcox (McMurray University). It was required repertoire for contestants in the 2012 Ellsworth-Smith International Trumpet Competition. The work moves from a dark emotional location in the first movement, to one of desolation and isolation and, finally, to an energized and optimistic conclusion.
Martin Rokeach's Running at the Top of the World is something different: dramatic, unpredictable, rich and multi-layered, moving from wild, solitary fantasy through bleak desolation to a miraculous, mellifluous dash towards eternity.
Gramophone Magazine; December 2016
Trumpeter Paul Futer and pianist Susan Nowicki's recorded of Running at the Top of the World, along with music by Anthony Plog and Charles Reskin; available on MSR Classics. Listen to the first movement, Fantasia 5:25
Listen to the second
movement, Desolato 5:06
Listen to the third movement,
Running at the Top of the World
2:57
Futer's agile and glowingly heroic trumpet blends beautifully with Nowicki's gracefully athletic piano in three winning new music works . . . Martin Rokeach's Running at the Top of the World finishes off the CD with complexities and ultra-contemporary motor sonorities both stirring and rhythmically vital. Anyone who responds to state-of-the-art contemporary brass music will find this highly enjoyable and rewarding. A stunner!
Gapplegate Music Review
Martin Rokeach's Running at the Top of the World has a perpetual motion and almost otherworldy feeling in all three movements . . .
it is fascinating. American Record Guide