Three Psalms [CF:PE085]

Commissioned by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Three Psalms (2003) is one of Psathas's landmark works. Set in three movements, the first introduces a simple kind of melodic motion whose evolution "tells the story" of the work. The second movement is inspired by the haunting images in James Nachtwey's photographic elegy Inferno. The third celebrates one of the most ebullient passages in piano concerto literature, the allegro passage in the first movement of Prokofiev's third concerto.