Program Note

River of 1,000 Streams is a dense, slowly evolving piece in which the solo piano is expanded by the addition of hundreds of “cascading echoes” (fragments of music that reappear
kaleidoscopically in up to 11 simultaneous layers, creating thick clouds of (primarily) tremolos that gradually gain in density and volume as rich, drifting harmonies climb, in a great arc, from the bottom to the top of the keyboard. Lentz writes that River was “conceived one early morning on the banks of the Yellowstone River.”
Vicki Ray’s recording of River of 1,000 Streams is available from Cold Blue Music. Reviewing that album: “The real intrigue of the piece is in its syntax. Lentz has never been afraid of the triad. . . . However, he uses it as does no one else, modulating from center to center with all of the consummate skill of a Romantic composer while sounding like none of them. . . . There is beauty, power, and soul in this music.” (Fanfare magazine) “If anyone is up to the challenges of Lentz’s piece, it’s Ray. . . . In terms of overall effect, the piece . . . rolls forth with the unstoppable force of a huge mass . . . rumbling like some below-ground geological awakening before ascending gradually in pitch like a slow-motion wave. . . . Lentz’s individuating voice asserts itself loudly when those bright melodic figures chime, much like radiant shafts of light breaking through heavy cloud cover.” (Textura)