For each edition of the Young Pianist Foundation (YPF) competition, a Dutch composer is invited to write a new piece to be performed by the three finalists. This year, the commission went to the successful young composer Jan-Peter de Graaff (1992), who has made a strong impression in recent years with his imaginative and masterfully crafted compositions. Often, these are large-scale orchestral works, such as the oratorio Het Gouden Kalf; the cello concerto The Forest in April; Concerto Métropolitain for saxophone quartet and orchestra; and, most recently, a solo concerto for luthéal (a type of prepared grand piano) and orchestra. He is currently working on the opera Hagar, which will premiere this September with the Nederlandse Reisopera.
For the YPF competition, De Graaff temporarily traded his large canvases for a smaller medium: “A piano piece is like a pen drawing.” The result is a diptych with the intriguing title Lock, Stock, and Barrel. Thomas Beijer, Artistic Director of the YPF, asked Jan-Peter de Graaff about his new work.
What does the title mean exactly?
De Graaff: “It is an English expression that means ‘the whole thing.’ Literally, it refers to the three parts of a gun: the lock, the stock, and the barrel. I found that interesting because it also carries something aggressive. This expression appears in the libretto of Hagar. Librettist Eleanor Barlow’s vlanguage is so energetic, and I was so immersed in it, that I thought, okay, I want to use this for my piano piece.”
Lock, Stock, and Barrel is the overarching title, but the two movements that make up the piece also have titles.
“They are English expressions from the libretto as well. The first movement, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, deals with the idea of being forced to make an impossible choice, facing a dilemma where both outcomes are bad. Musically, this is expressed in the duality between regular and irregular rhythms. Do we go left or right? I play with that throughout the movement. The second movement, Sour Grapes, is about dealing with the consequences of that dilemma. And together, they form lock, stock, and barrel – a complete whole.”
A whole full of misery, from the sound of it…
“Yes, but also full of irony. As a composer, I’m very sensitive to what’s happening around me. But I don’t translate that literally. I love metaphors in music. There’s certainly critique in my work, but it’s not direct or one-to-one. As a modern human, so much comes at you – it’s overwhelming. At some point, you can’t see the bigger picture anymore, and how do you make a good choice when all options are bad? That was a concept I could really work with. But I present it in Lock, Stock, and Barrel with lightness and irony. And I’m excited to see how the pianists will bring out that ironic later.
World premiere of Lock, Stock and Barrel will be held on March 9 2025 in the Muziekgebouw can ‘t IJ. For the tickets to the finale of the YPF European Piano Competition, click here.
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