Works – Solo
Four Preludes
Piano
8 mins. (pub. Music Shop Europe)
First Performance: Jonathan Higgins, Burgh House, London 1986
Prelude, Interlude and Postlude
Piano
10 mins. (pub. Music Shop Europe)
First Performance: Philip Mead, St. John’s Smith Square , London
3rd June 1995
Winner of the 1995 Purcell composition prize
CD Recording: Prima Facie PFCD008 Gintaute Gataveckaite
Klezmer
Violin
9 mins. (pub. Music Shop Europe)
First Performance: Lucy Gould, Purcell Room, London
27th May 1993
CD Recording: Prima Facie PFCD008 Midori Sugiyama
“The highlight of the concert was undoubtedly the premiere of an unaccompanied piece by Adam Gorb, Klezmer, which proved entrancing. In the violin’s biting rhythms and poignant, yearning melodies, Gorb captures the nuances and joie de vivre of the Jewish music to which the title refers, moving beyond The usual musical stereotypes to produce a work of profound emotional intensity.”
The Strad October 1993
“…a knockout fron start to finish.”
Tim Ashley, The Guardian January 2003
“…dark, melodic and impassioned…”
www.classicalsource.com, January 2007
Piano Sonata
Commissioned by Michael Kearns
23 mins. (Music available from the composer.)
First Performance: Donald Elman, London College of Music and Media
5th March 1998
Piping Down the Valleys Wild
Recorder
Commissioned by John Turner
5 mins. (pub. Forsyth Brothers Ltd.)
First Performance: John Turner, Luton Music Club
16th February 1998
“Of the remaining pieces I particularly enjoyed the musical challenges of Piping Down the Valleys Wild by Adam Gorb. The rhythms he employs, combined with the high technical demands, create music of considerable, though achievable, complexity.”
Adam J Dopadilik, The Recorder Magazine
Schubertiad for Mark
Piano
2 mins. 30 secs. (Music available from the composer)
First Performance: Peter Lawson, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester
23rd October 2006
Trunk
Trombone
5 mins. (pub. Studio)
Tenor and Bass Trombone
Commissioned by Jonathan Warburton
Played extensively by him since 2009
Absinthe
Piano
11 mins. (Pub. Composers Edition)
First Performance: Royal Northern College of Music Manchester – Graham Scott
February 17 2010
CD Recording: Prima Facie PFCD008 Graham Scott
“Adam Gorb’s explosive and hallucinatory Absinthe.”
Richard Morrison, The Times
January 2011
Agen
Clarinet
3 mins. (Pub. Composers Edition)
Written for Paul Vowles
CD Recording: Prima Facie PFCD008 Paul Vowles
Velocity (2014)
Piano
6 mins. (Pub. Composers Edition)
First Performance: Clare Hammond, All Saints Church, East Sheen, London SW4
10th May 2014
CD Recording Toccata Classics TOCC0620
The work started as an interrupted toccata, with Hammond contributing some brilliant, crisp playing. As the work continued, and the pulse got even faster, the toccata ceased to be interrupted, and Hammond brought out quite a hard edge to the music, and she certainly dazzled with the sheer virtuosity of her playing.
Robert Hugill – Planet Hugill May 2014
Brahms and Red Wine 2016
Piano
6 mins. (Pub. Composers Edition)
First Performance: Graham Scott RNCM April 29th 2016
24 Preludes
Piano
68 mins. (Pub. Composers Edition)
Various performances of groups of pieces by Clare Hammond 2021-2022 in UK music clubs
First Performance of all preludes Royal Northern College of Music
Clare Hammond and RNCM keyboard students June 21st 2022
CD Recording Toccata Classics TOCC 0620 Clare Hammond piano
“These finely crafted vignettes are teeming with invention, some of which evoke a specific mood or genre, while other, study-like miniatures exploit pianistic or compositional techniques. The heart of the set is a beautiful piece entitled, ‘The Girl with the White Parasol’, its title derived from the film Citizen Kane, and Gorb alludes to it, wistfully, and very briefly in the closing bars of the final Fugue…… There are many other delights along the way, from the droll, heartfelt homage to Yiddish humour in ‘Klezfest’ to the Zen-like stasis of ‘Samantha’ and the shadowy, ruminative ‘Valse Triste’……
“The sheer range of material is remarkable…. This tour de force for piano is a lavish and genuine supplement to the examples of Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Debussy, and Shostakovich……Seekers of directly communicative contemporary keyboard music and admirers of consummate pianism should not hesitate.”
Paul Conway Musical Opinion July 2022
After the Darkness
Piano
5 mins 30 secs (Pub. Composers Edition)
First Performance: St Mary’s Weymouth
Duncan Honeybourne piano October 21st 2020
CD Recording Prima Facie PFCD140