About this Piece

One of the world’s great natural improvisers, Mark O’Connor has played increasingly complex riffs on his own career. Over decades he has transformed himself from a country-pop sideman, band member, and soloist into a classical-roots-jazz-world composer and performer, an undefinable artist who has crossed over so many boundaries that his style is purely personal. 

Probably the best-known stop on this journey has been Appalachia Waltz, the title track of an album with superstar cellist Yo-Yo Ma and composer-bassist Edgar Meyer that dominated the classical charts in 1996. “To me, Appalachia Waltz is a modern-day spiritual,” O’Connor says. “It conveys optimism and longing, a belief in the future, and a closeness for old homes, old friends, and past journeys.” 

O’Connor wrote it originally in 1993 as a fiddle solo and arranged it with Meyer for the 1996 trio collaboration. It has been arranged in many guises since, by the composer and others.

Here it is the wistful heart of an ad hoc trio, framed by two pieces from Appalachian Journey, the 2000 sequel that won the Grammy for Best Classical Crossover Album. These reveal a riffing need for speed and the cleanest bowing and articulation possible. 

Emily’s Reel is full of cheery and cheeky hoedown spirit in its rhythmic and melodic inflection. Caprice for Three is a hard-driving trio expression of the more abstract and stylistically omnivorous impulses of the six caprices O’Connor modeled on those by Paganini, recorded in 1996 for his 1998 solo album Midnight on the Water.

—John Henken