In last week’s Classical Music Agenda, I led with a concert on Sunday afternoon in the Corcoran Gallery of Art‘s acoustically splendid auditorium. It was the first concert of the season from the Contemporary Music Forum, but not even the Washington premiere of a major piece of new music, Paul Moravec‘s Tempest Fantasy, could draw more than a sparse audience.

The composer himself was on hand to give a brief presentation on Tempest Fantasy, which won him the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2004. The piece for violin, clarinet/bass clarinet, cello, and piano was inspired by characters, lines, and scenes from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. According to Moravec, he associated particular instruments with the three main characters: the high-flying violin with the air spirit Ariel, the bumbling bass clarinet with the earthy monster Caliban, and the melodious cello with the magician Prospero.

Moravec makes considerable demands on the players, for example, in the rip-roaring toccata-like first movement (“Ariel”) with its wash of repeated notes, runs, and constant figuration in the piano. However, his basic language is surprisingly tonal, almost neo-Romantic. The four players handled the many challenges with aplomb, and it was a rare treat to hear the piece after the composer’s own analysis of it.