Composer Gary Lloyd Noland's COLLECTED PIANO WORKS: Volume 2 includes his epic-length 39 VARIATIONS ON AN ORIGINAL THEME IN F MAJOR Op. 98, his super-virtuosic GRANDE RAG BRILLANTE Op. 15, his GOLDEN GATE RAG Op. 123, and several other heretofore unpublished works for piano.
39 VARIATIONS ON AN ORIGINAL THEME IN F MAJOR Op. 98 is, at approximately two hours duration, one of the lenghiest and most challenging sets in the history of the genre. It has been described by composer Ernesto Ferreri as "an historical variation set for piano, a true descendant of the Goldbergs and Diabellis, beautifully targeted to an apotheosis of supreme grandeur." Composer/pianist Ludwig Tuman described it as "an astounding tour de force. In its far-reaching, systematic exploration of the theme's creative possibilities, as well as in the inexhaustible imagination brought to bear, it reminds one of the Goldberg and the Diabelli. But in its monumental dimensions it goes far beyond them both, and in the large number of historical styles referenced and integrated into the work ... I am unaware of any parallel. I especially enjoyed the consistent use of certain features of the theme, regardless of the style or the type of tonality, pantonality or atonality employed-among them the melodic turn, the phrases ascending by whole steps, and others. I offer my humble congratulations on a titanic achievement!"
Ragtime pianist Mark Lutton once described GRANDE RAG BRILLANTE Op. 15 as "the most difficult ragtime piece of all time ... The audience needs to have Attention Hyperabundance Disorder. (It's fine if, like me, your idea of a nice short little piece is a tone poem by Richard Strauss.)" The Canadian pianist and composer Max Keelyside described it as "the work of a musician's musician." GRANDE RAG BRILLANTE received its official world premiere on KPFA Radio on 4 October, 1991 in celebration of the inauguration of Pacifica Radio's (then) sparkling new facility in Berkeley, California. It was "performed" on a computer-driven Yamaha Disklavier. This historic premiere, paired with the premiere of a (then) new work by Lou Harrison, was later written up in Nicolas Slonimsky's MUSIC SINCE 1900 (an encyclopedic compendium that chronologically lists premieres of compositions that its author deems to be among the most significant and noteworthy of the 20th century). Ernesto Ferreri wrote, "Only a musical maniac could push something this far ... at times the