Carr's Ten Concert Studies are a present-day development of the concert studies of Chopin, Liszt, Debussy, Scriabin and Szymanowski. As well as demanding a transcendental technical command of the instrument, the studies call for an expressive and stylistic interpretation that give the impression of miniature tone-poems.
Faye Caley, Music Teacher (UK), April 2005
[This] challenging work by Edwin Carr is described by the composer as "present-day development of the concert studies of Liszt, Debussy, Scriabin and Symanowsky". The studies demand a ‘transcendental piano technique' as well as interpretative skills to enable the performer to convey the essence of the music, which can be likened to miniature tone-poems. The final four studies are based on music of four countries. These include a type of Hungarian rhapsody, some variations on Greensleeves and a bravura finale - Alla Russa - requiring great technical precision and stamina, with fast-moving ocatves in both hands.
Throughout his extensive musical output, Edwin Carr demonstrated a consummate craftsmanship and refinement. Regarded as the most cosmopolitan of the elder generation of New Zealand composers, he was particularly noted for his strident opposition to what he felt were attitudes of insular nationalism and intellectual pretension.
