Three Fantasies

Three Fantasies is a 17-minute triptych showcasing the composer’s technical and atmospheric mastery of the instrument with which he is most closely associated. The first of its panels is a darkly fantastical ‘Gothic Fantasy’, whose brooding, tolling opening gives way to restless melodic writing. The ensuing ‘Cerulean Fantasy’ celebrated the endless skies – “impossibly deep blue” – of the Darling Ranges of Vine’s native Australia, in recollection of his childhood holidays. The conclusive ‘Fantasia Divina’ is a mystical tour-de-force, with multiple overlapping waves and layers of sound emerging miraculously from just one instrument – a celebration of pianistic virtuosity. “In the world of the divine”, Vine notes, “one must remember that deities not only inspire awe, but can also be implacable and unforgiving.”