The Andante and Rondo moderato movements performed, attacca, are majestic compositions written in the grand style imitating both orchestral and pianoforte effects. The Andante develops many characteristic features of nineteenth-century guitar writing such as passages in thirds, melodies in the bass with accompanying treble chords, and short episodes of Alberti basses supporting a melodic line. The Rondo in contrast is a showcase of brilliance with fast, catchy melodies, sections of intricate triples and arpeggio patterns, miniature cadenzas, and an accelerating momentum concluding with dramatic coda.
Like alchemists of old, attempting to recombine the four elements, here Fabio Brum presents four distinct musical languages in a programme forged during lockdown. Gabriele Roberto's Tokyo Suite charts the astonishment of a traveller dazzled by the vast megapolis, whereas Dimitri Cervo's The Brazilian Four Seasons offers a colourful, energetic panorama of the natural and human worlds. Fabio Brum's very personal musical journey is highlighted by the contrast between the Talmudic contemplation of Menachem Zur's De Profundis and the abstract ruminations of Nicola Tescari's Trumpet Concerto "Nine Moods".
The cyclical structure of the Christmas Oratorio is reinforced by the fact that this same chorale appears in the final chorus of Part 6, Nun seid ihr wohl gerochen (Now you are well avenged). It seems fitting for the group to play that chorus, especially because in its original form it is a trumpet solo. This is the triumphant climax of the final part, and the virtuosic solo is played on a piccolo trumpet, as the chorus celebrate the failure of Herod's plan.
Bach's keyboard works known as the English Suites offer a series of dance movements which, despite their name, owe more to earlier French and German models.Transcriptions of Bach for solo guitar have been popular since the nineteenth century and the emergence of the guitar duo extends still further the potential for exciting and revelatory performances.
English Suite No. 2 in A minor begins with a longer Prelude demonstrating admirably the flexibility of the introductory prelude concept which lays down few structural rules unlike the other movements which generally adhere to specific dance patterns. Following the sheer energy of the Prelude , the Allemande comes as a gentle stream of tranquillity. The single Courante is less extended than those in Suite No. 1 , the texture being that of flowing quavers.
For the Sarabande J.S. Bach put in a second example of the piece complete with agrements or embellishments, an idea which had found a precedent in Couperin's Premier Ordre (Paris 1713). This establishes a guide to the composer's own approach to embellishing his music. The two Bourrees offer elegant contrasts to each other in key, texture and mood, the second being more chordal and buoyant than its two-part invention-like predecessor. The Gigue differs from...
Bach's keyboard works known as the English Suites offer a series of dance movements which, despite their name, owe more to earlier French and German models. Transcriptions of Bach for solo guitar have been popular since the nineteenth century and the emergence of the guitar duo extends still further the potential for exciting and revelatory performances.
English Suite No. 3 in G minor, BWV 808 , is possibly the most popular suite of the set. The Prelude contrasts chordal accompaniments against brilliant semiquavers in a manner reminiscent of Vivaldi's concerto grosso . The Allemande differs from the previous suites in that the opening theme is in the bass. The fluent beauty of the particular composition makes this an example (if ever one was needed!), of the ideal allemande.
The Courante presents complex rhythmic patterns as Bach subtly advances the form, moulding the structure into a sonorous contrapuntal labyrinth. The Sarabande also is a magnificent vision of the possibilities of this dance taken to its most refined level. As with the previous suite, Bach has written out a more elaborately ornamented version as well as providing a (comparatively) simplified offering.
Gavotte I is contrasted against a Gavotte subtitled Musette , intended to be imitative...
English Suite No. 5 , originally in E minor but played on the guitar in B minor, begins with an extended Prelude in the form of a true fugue, building from its opening theme and modulating through a number of keys in a contrasting middle section before returning to the original motif.
The Allemande is also fugal. Following the plaintive sonorities
of the beginning, the second half of the movement in contrast contains some interesting dissonances.
This Courante is an exuberant dance propelled forward by energetic rhythmic patterns and some rapturous ornamentation. In each half, the onward momentum of the two-part counterpoint is relieved at particular moments by concise phrases played over a simple dominant pedal accompaniment before the contrapuntal aspects resume.
The Sarabande , in a three-part texture, has many intriguing features including a free-flowing bass line and a poignant melodic line.
The passepied (popular as a French court dance and instrumental form, and a quicker version of the menuet) was frequently put to good use in French operas and ballets. In the late Baroque keyboard suites it became customary for them to appear in pairs. The first Passepied in this suite is in rondeau form. The bright and brisk nature of the passepied is well represented...
English Suite No. 6 opens in chorale style in 9/8 time with elegantly broken chords. This is interrupted by a sudden burst of semiquavers leading to a moment's reflection before plunging into an extended and brilliant fugal Allegro. Of the Preludes in the English Suites this is the longest and most elaborate. The Allemande which follows is, in comparison, an oasis of calm, with superb contrapuntal writing and ingenious tonal modulations. The Courante unites a French-style melodic line with a sparkling walking bass. After the restrained eloquence of the Allemande this movement seems to imply its own celebration of Bachian joie de vivre.
The Sarabande , in 3/2, has a hymn-like grandeur and dignity, The Double extends the emotional range with an interwoven texture creating a fine tapestry of sonorities.
The Gigue , in 12/16 metre, is virtuosic in both compositional aspects and the technical demands on the performers. Bach's incomparable art of fugal writing is at full stretch here, the second half representing, as in mirror images, inversions of the exposition of the opening first section. The magnificence of the trills at strategic points is matched by the driving thrust of the triplets in perpetual motion building up to a dramatic finale.
First complete take of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor for Stokowski Transcriptions, Vol. 2 (8.572050). It is performed by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Jose Serebrier, and recorded on 17 April 2008 at The Lighthouse Arts Center, Poole, UK.
The Prelude and Fugue , Op. 91, composed in Bayonnein September for the Fourth Pontoise International "Piano Campus" competition, is dedicated to fellow composer Rene Maillard . Like Shostakovich before him, Bacri here proves that the Baroque form that reached its apogee with Bach's harpsichord and organ works, remains fertile ground for a composer's imagination and invention, even in the 21st Century.
The Prelude , in a sparkling C major, acts as an introduction and is inextricably linked to the Fugue in that it sketches out the head of its subject. The four-part exposition in the fugue reveals a highly expressive subject, and the interest of the musical discourse lies in the subsequent use of this and its fragments as well as in the variety of ways in which it is presented. Shortly before the end, the tempo halves. The music then takes on a lyrical aspect, before a resounding C major conclusion on a rhythmic figure derived from the end of the subject.
The Trois Romances sans paroles, Op. 2 (Three Songs Without Words) were published by Belaieff in 1904, the same year as the Tema con variazioni, Op. 1, and the set bears the dedication 'To my wife Vera'. The associations with Mendelssohn that come from the title songs without words are obvious: concise form, simple structure, pianistic writing which is light in the first and third pieces, weightier in the rather Tchaikovskian second.
The variety of articulations employed in the Adagio sostenuto in G sharp minor make this the most complex of the three pieces. A short central section, Piu mosso, which builds to a dynamic climax, begins as the lilting quavers of the opening come to an end.
Bartok wrote Contrasts in response to a letter of 11th August 1938 from the violinist Joseph Szigeti, telling him that Benny Goodman wanted to commission a trio with solo violin and clarinet. Bartok was by then 57, and had never written a chamber work for a wind instrument. Contrasts is a particularly complex and virtuosic work, and notably requires the clarinettist to switch from a clarinet in A to a B flat instrument for the opening and closing sections of the third movement (similarly the violin has to be retuned in peasant mode to G sharp, D, A, E flat).
The first movement, Verbunkos (Recruiting Dance) is based on a traditional gypsy tune, then the calm of the second, Piheno (Relaxation), is followed by Sebes (Fast Dance), providing a fast and furious conclusion to the work.
To mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth, Russian born arranger Paul Struck has arranged one of the composer's great mid-period chamber masterpiece for soloist and string ensemble. Expanding the sonorities of the Kreutzer Sonata - Beethoven's most important chamber work for violin - allows the sonata's concertante quality to emerge in a new light together with the passionate eagerness of the young musicians of the LGT Young Soloists. They have set out to express the freshness and vivacity that is inherent to Beethoven's music.
Adapted from the Lark music, Bernstein composed his Missa brevis for mixed chorus a cappella (divided into as many as eight parts), solo countertenor, bells and "incidental percussion" (the exact nature of which is left somewhat to the discretion of the conductor). Open fifths at the beginning of the Kyrie immediately establish the quasi-medieval character which continues throughout the work.
Lars Aksel Bisgaard's Walking , with the subtitle Hommage a Thoreau , was written in 2014. The piece is based on some youth sketches from 1984, and is inspired by the American author Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) and his essay Walking from 1862. The simple main theme, which uses the available notes corresponding to the letters in Thoreau's name (B [=H] - E - D - A), gradually 'wander' further and further away from the starting point, and in the end come back again - like any good walking tour. Walking is dedicated to Carl Petersson with great gratitude and respect for his formidable musicianship, which becomes apparent not least on this recording.
Blow's 1683 Venus and Adonis - a masque for the entertainment of the King, Charles II, who had enjoyed French opera in Paris during the years of the Interregnum - is widely regarded as the first English opera. A truly groundbreaking work, it is largely through-composed, rather than resorting to separate setpieces, distinct arias and spoken dialogue, and this greatly heightens its dramatic impact.
The final G Minor chorus (Mourn for thy servant) takes the form of a funeral march and offers scant consolation for the fallen goddess, "the wretched Queen of Love in this forsaken grove".
Half Moon Etude (an etude wherein the left hand constantly goes over the right hand - painting a half moon shape in the air)
The beautiful melody of Allegro I in F major, B88 , emerges after a brief introduction which is masterfully enlivened by exquisite and colourful changes of harmony in the manner of Chopin's Prelude in E minor, Op. 28, No. 4 . Its mood gradually alters, becoming more contemplative, then abruptly changing into the main theme of Piruchin in F major, B65 , a musical ethos portraying Bottiroli himself. Paired with Allegro I, Allegro II in F major, B88 , is the first and shorter version of Payasos ('Clowns') in F major, B89 .
Night Waltz - one of the Paul Bowles most recorded works - is distinguishable for its polymetric counterpoint and cornucopia of musical ideas. These thoughts flow freely, without being punctuated by cadences, which parallels stream of consciousness in literature. Coincidentally, 1949 is the year in which William Faulkner - an American writer known for his use of stream of consciousness - was awarded the Nobel Prize. Attentive listeners may also be able to perceive that the piece was composed after Bowles had settled in Morocco, as exotic Middle Eastern scales at times seep through the dense texture of the work.
A period of twenty-one years separates Johannes Brahms' Cello Sonatas Nos. 1 and 2 . Suffused with lyricism and expressive ardour, the First has become one of his most popular chamber works. The Second is more sober and succinct than the earlier work, yet strikingly original not least for the wide range required of the cellist to reach unusually high notes from the very low register. Chosen to suit the cello's particular colour and articulation, the six songs are heard in idiomatic and sensitive arrangements which stay as close as possible to the originals.
Between 1932 and Castelnuovo-Tedesco death in 1968, he wrote over a hundred works for the instrument, including sets of variations, concertos, duos,impressionistic pieces of various kinds, and, among his finest solo compositions, the Sonata, Op. 77, 'Omaggio a Boccherini' , written at Segovia's request in 1934 for 'a Sonata in four movements. The Sonata is in four movements, but it is mainly in the first movement, Allegro con spirito , one can find the graciousness which was so characteristic of Boccherini .
The Andantino, quasi canzone , refers to Boccherini's 'romantic' mood from Castelnuovo-Tedesco's second movement in his Guitar Sonata, Op. 77, 'Omaggio a Boccherini' .
The Concerto-Fantasy was written for the young Vietnamese virtuoso Quynh Nguyen, which was commissioned for its premiere by Frank E. Ferguson for the Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra. Paul Chihara composed it from January 2019 to February 2021 in New York City as a personal tribute and musical portrait of the soloist. It is in four movements, played without pause.
Domenico Cimarosa wrote the cantata Atene edificata (The Founding of Athens) during the brief period in which he was employed at the court of Catherine the Great. The full-autograph score is now housed in the library of the San Pietro a Majello Conservatory in Naples but, because it has been impossible to trace a copy of the printed libretto, most of what we know about the work's first performance has been gleaned from the brief notes left by Cimarosa on the title page of the score. The cantata was almost certainly given its premiere on 29th June 1788 (10th July in the Gregorian calendar).
Premiered in 1946, a year after the end of World War II, Copland's iconic Symphony No. 3 was described by the composer as 'wartime piece' - or, more accurately, an end-of-war piece - intended to reflect the euphoric spirit of the country at the time'.
Peter Cornelius was born in Mainz into a theatrical family. He wrote many songs and three operas, the last of which, Gunold , was completed after his death. Der Barbier von Bagdad was written in 1858 to a libretto by the composer himself which he based on a story from The Arabian Nights. The sparkling two-act German comic opera received its premiere in Weimar in December 1858 under the baton of Franz Liszt , the theatre's music director. Following the first performance, Liszt suggested to Cornelius that he write a fresh overture to replace the short prelude but the composer died before he was able to make an orchestration.
Several arrangements of Cornelius's overture exist, including one by Liszt himself - the D major version heard here is by the conductor Felix Mottl. Packed with incident, the overture uses several themes heard later in the opera.
Carl Czerny penned an astonishing amount of music, including the numerous potpourris, fantasies, teaching pieces and studies for which he became known. This recording features Andante grazioso from Andante and Rondo, Op. 213 composed in 1829.
First published in 1830, Czerny's impressive work can be considered one of the first romantic concertos ever written. Czerny employs thematic transformation throughout, as the opening thematic idea in hushed strings builds and takes on various guises as the work progresses. Following the extended orchestral opening, the initial piano entry states the theme mezzo-forte. The contrasting dolce second subject leads to some gladiatorial writing for piano, and a grandiose statement in the orchestra before a beautifully tranquil texture with clarinet leads into the development. Here the piano states the thematic idea boldly, with diminished seventh harmonies adding to the tension, answered by a pensive oboe. After a strong orchestral return the piano solo transforms the theme again, now in the major key, the added seventh lending a yearning quality.
Session recording of Debussy's Preludes, Book 1, arranged for orchestra by Colin Matthews. The recording was made at the Royal Concert Hall Glasgow by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Jun Mrkl in June 2011. This is the eighth and final volume of Debussy's complete orchestral works, and it is scheduled for release with catalogue number 8.572584.
Symphony No. 2, "Le Double" (1955-59) was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation for the 75th anniversary of the Boston Symphony Orchestra who premiered it on 11th December 1959 under the baton of Charles Munch. It is scored for a 12-strong chamber ensemble featuring representatives from each instrumental family (oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, harpsichord, celeste, timpani and string quartet) in addition to a full orchestra.
The formation allows for subtle interplay between the two musical protagonists as they join forces, confront each other and offer reflected images of each other in a series of shifting inter-relationships. It is this dual personality, together with a use of stereophonic effects and polyrhythms which gives the symphony its subtitle "Le Double". As the composer put it, it's a musical play of mirrors and of contrasting colours'.
Drawing inspiration from the tonal centres of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp, Op. 27, No. 2, Rachmaninov's Prelude in C sharp, Op. 3, No. 2, Tchaikovsky's August and June from The Seasons, Op. 37b , and Khachaturian's Toccata, Dhaivaya: Alter(ing) Hue includes modulations on a motif based on C sharp, B, G, and E flat, coupled with an adaptation of and variations on a well-known Sri Lankan hymn tune. The hymn has two titles: Jehovah Thou Hast Promised and Danno Budunge. The first is sung to a Christian text, the second to a Buddhist text. The word 'dhaivaya' meaning 'destiny' belongs to the Sinhala language. The work evolved in 2011 and was first performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, in Washington DC, in 2012.
Fairouz's inspiration for his Fourth Symphony was a comic book by Art Spiegelman that bears the same title. Spiegelman began it shortly after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, capturing our horror and varied reactions to the tragedy with provocative images and statements. The artist has found himself "moved by the scary, somber and seriously silly symphony" that Fairouz composed, noting that they are different types of artists
but "equally obsessed with structure." Fairouz had been interested in writing a piece based on Spiegelman's book for several years, but hesitated to approach it because of the work's inevitably divisive nature. Each movement is a faithful rendering of excerpts from Spiegelman and, as will be shown, Fairouz does not shrink from controversy.
Spiegelman's panels that inspired the symphony may be
viewed at Fairouz's website: mohammedfairouz.com/inthe-shadow-of-no-towers
The suite, orchestrated by Faure in collaboration with his pupil Charles Koechlin , includes some of his best-loved music. The Prelude features a theme representing Melisande, who is very much the focus of the incidental music; her theme gradually gets louder and more passionate, and a sinister-sounding bass accompaniment hints at the forthcoming tragedy.
Faure wrote his Piano Trio in D minor between August 1922 and the following spring, undertaking the work at the prompting of his publisher, Jacques Durand. Whatever Durand may have suggested, Faure, staying at Annecy-le Vieux in the Haute Savoie, first set about writing a work for clarinet, cello and piano, before turning to the more usual instrumentation. It is recorded here as seemingly originally intended, with the clarinet adding a new dimension to a work generally familiar in its more conventional published version. Faure first completed the Andantino and then, back in Paris, the other two movements, with the final Allegro vivo finished by March 1923. The work was dedicated to Mme Maurice Rouvier, widow of the former banker and President of the Council.
Gerald Finzi had written his Romance in E-Flat Major , also for string orchestra. He revised it much later in his career, and it only received its first performance in 1951, long after he had moved from London to Wiltshire to devote himself to his twin passions: composing, and the preservation of rare varieties of English apple. Fittingly the Romance has an air of elegiac nostalgia, warmer and more optimistic than the Prelude, growing from a pensive introduction into a lilting and unwaveringly lyrical movement.
No brass series would be complete without Giovanni Gabrieli , and his music is the starting point as Septura continue on their counterfactual course, imagining that four titans of the counter-reformation had written for brass.
The Hours is Stephen Daldry's movie realization of Michael Cunningham's 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. The soundtrack, composed in 2002, is one of Philip Glass' most passionate, obsessive and eerie scores.
The soundtrack received plaudits from critics and audiences alike. It won BAFTA's Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music and was nominated for an Oscar, a Golden Globe and a GRAMMY. Publisher Paramount Music assigned Michael Riesman (Glass' long-time musical director) and Nico Muhly to issue a book of arrangements for solo piano.
Metamorphosis I-V , features piano transcriptions of pieces written in 1988. Two of them, Nos. 3 and 4, were composed as incidental music for a play based on Kafka's novel The Metamorphosis (Die Verwandlung); Nos. 1, 2 and 5 derive from the soundtrack to Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line. Although assembled in this manner the work could seem like an opportunistic patchwork, the cycle has the ability on the concert stage to stop time and let us enter a new realm of perceptions.
This volume focuses on love, one of Philip Glass' most glorious themes. The timeless melancholy of his BAFTA award-winning music for The Hours forms an organic suite driven by the film's three powerful characters, here complete with three unpublished movements. The breathtakingly energetic Modern Love Waltz expands the limits of minimalism by combining Glass' style with Viennese dance tradition, while his transcription of Notes on a Scandal is a recording premiere. Steve Reich described the iconic Music in Fifths as being 'like a freight train'.
Composed in 1977 for a radio reading of Constance DeJong's novel Modern Love and then used for The Waltz Project (a dance performance of the same novel), Modern Love Waltz is - like The Cafe from Orphee on GlassWorlds, Vol. 1 - another example of Glass' desire to expand the limits of minimalism. Combining the Viennese tradition of the waltz with his own style (as was so often done in the nineteenth century) the bass ostinato and the intoxicating improvisation in the upper voice generate a breathtaking expression of pure energy.
The Second Quartet composed in 1983, the music emerged as four short interludes for Mabou Mines' staging of Samuel Beckett's prose-poem Company, a meditation on mortality whose sombre and fatalistic tone inevitably determined the character of Philip Glass's music. Thus the first
movement unfolds as an undulating rhythm on lower strings, over which violins pursue a doleful melodic idea. The second movement is appreciably more animated in its outlining of related melodic and rhythmic ideas, while the third movement seems more in the way of an intermezzo that wends its wistful though on occasion restive way. The final movement sets the upper and lower strings in purposeful contrast as the music follows an anxious and finally inconclusive course.
Quartet No. 2, Quartetto facile in four movements, organised in a traditional pattern with the scherzo-like second movement followed by a slower third movement, has thematic material which is present in all the movements. Narrow intervals that expand and contract once more in a way that owes a debt to Bartok's motif technique, but that maybe is also a portent of the grid that emerges almost 15-20 years later? In the conclusion of the third movement, quiet trills form a static sound image that simultaneously shows the influence of Bartok and points forward towards the motionless cicada noise of the fourth quartet.
Handel's 1711 crusader opera Rinaldo , which pits the Christian Rinaldo against Argante, the Muslim King of Jerusalem, was the first Italian-language opera composed for the London stage. Handel composed the opera in just two weeks, aided by the recycling of much existing material - so much that it has been described as an "anthology" of his Italian period.
The Sibilar gli angui , an aria for solo trombone, was lifted completely from a dramatic cantata, and has a "ludicrously inappropriate" text for the bellicose Argante's grand Act I entrance; also from an earlier cantata.
Irish-born Victor Herbert was one of the most celebrated names in American music in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A cellist, conductor, and composer of light operas, he was also a recording artist. His two Cello Concertos are full of graceful melodies, the First having a songlike slow movement and a spirited Polonaise finale that earned praise at its 1885 premiere in Stuttgart. The Second Concerto, scored for a large orchestra,
is more tightly constructed than the First. It was hearing this work that inspired Herbert's boss at the National Conservatory in New York, Antonin Dvorak , to write his own great B Minor Cello Concerto.
The Ulster Orchestra entered into an exciting new relationship with Naxos in October with the recording of a CD of lesser-known music by Gustav Holst. Under its new principal conductor JoAnn Falletta, the orchestra has committed to a multi-year recording relationship with Naxos.
Quite different in character is the cabaret item Romance , composed to words by Horovitz's great friend Alistair Sampson, who had been the librettist of his two parody-cantatas for the 1958 and 1961 Hoffnung Music Festivals. Romance was often sung in a version for the King's Singers, who recorded it for their Lollipops album in 1975; and the solo version here is another later conceit.
The Hiawatha Melodrama here recorded is a third and "final" version which Horowitz expanded to include excerpts from Dvorak's American Suite and Violin Sonatina . The objective has been to turn a demonstration arising from scholarly inquiry into a bona fide concert work. The narrative, extracted from Longfellow's poem, is no longer fragmentary but continuous: it tells the Hiawatha story, beginning to end. From the American Suite, Horowitz have extracted an elegiac Indianist refrain from the third movement and from the Sonatina he used themes from the Larghetto, which is a portrait of Hiawatha's wife Minnehaha. He also added transitional passages of his own. The orchestration, where not by Dvorak, it is by Angel Gil-Ordonez.
The Hunting of Pau-Pau-Keewis wherein the music is extracted from the finale of Dvorak's New World Symphony (a Berkerman alignment). Certain Longfellow lines are here sung. Berkerman comments: "While this at first may seem far-fetched, one must remember that as soon as he returned to Bohemia 1895, he composed a series of tone poems based on the ballads of K.J. Erben. In at least one of these, he set down the poem, line by line, beneath the music - so this process was not alien him."
The orchestral triptych of Meditation, Nach dem Sturm and Klage is award-winning composer Toshio Hosokawa's response to the 2011 Tohoku earthqaute and tsunami. Meditation mourns the victims with a quiet song of sorrow. It was commissioned by the 2012 Tongyeong International Music Festival in Korea, and was dedicated to the music director of the festival, Alexander Liebreich.
A colleague of Mendelssohn, the Schumann's and Brahms, the virtuoso violinist Joseph Joachim was himself a composer of note. It is a tour de force by a highly gifted twenty year old. The Opus 11 Violin Concerto is a Classical three movements frequently coloured by Hungarian inflections, most strikingly in the 'gypsy finale' which calls for astonishing technical control, immense stamina and fiery abandon from the soloist. Suyoen Kim is the Winner of the 2006 Hannover International Violin Competition.
The Armenian pianist Karine Poghosyan made her orchestral debut at fourteen playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.1 , and her solo Carnegie Hall debut at 23, and has since gone on to win numerous awards as well as performing in some of the world's most prestigious concert halls. Her music studies began in her native Yerevan in Armenia at the School of the Arts No. 1, continuing at Romanos Melikian College and the Komitas State Conservatory. Her teachers in Armenia included Irina Gazarian, Vatche Umr-Shat, and Svetlana Dadyan. After moving to the United States in 1998, she received her BM, summa cum laude, from California State University in Northridge under Francoise Regnat, and her MM and D.M.A. degrees at the Manhattan School of Music under Arkady Aronov, completing her D.M.A. in a record-breaking two years with a thesis on Aram Khachaturian's works for piano. She is currently based in New York, where she teaches at the Manhattan School of Music.
The tensile opening of Kodaly's Sonata for Solo Cello , Allegro maestoso ma appassionato commences with powerful declamatory writing that gradually opens-out in expression while also evincing greater harmonic ambiguity. This second main theme unfolds at some length, before an extensive development in which technical virtuosity is pushed to the limit. The reprise duly centers on the second theme, though elements of its predecessor never seem far away. Even when the music withdraws into itself for an inward coda, the closing brusque gesture makes for an unequivocal statement of intent.
The central Adagio is the Sonata's emotional heart in every respect - the cello's initial soliloquy heading forth with deliberation as the melodic line in the instrument's upper register is shadowed by speculative pizzicatos in the depths. Such rumination is summarily curtailed by an eruptive middle section in which dance elements are once more to the fore, but these are leavened by the return of earlier material that enables the movement to retrace its steps on route to a coda that exudes raptness and anguish in equal measure.
The final movement, Allegro molto vivace caps the work in suitably imposing fashion: ostensibly another sequence of dance-like episodes, it is informed by a cumulative energy which sees its initial idea reappearing as though a structural refrain; around this, the intervening episodes generate a cumulative intensity sustained through to the climactic return of the main theme. This has itself been anticipated with a passage of starkly evocative writing that increases in virtuosity and velocity, surging on with a majestic outpouring of emotion which concludes this singular work in a mood of coursing defiance.
Liszt's Etudes d'execution transcendante enshrine the spirit of High Romanticism embodying extremes of expressive drama and technical virtuosity. His encyclopedic approach to technique is shown at its most dazzling in this cycle, heard in the 1852 revision which Liszt himself declared 'the only authentic one'. Integration of musical and technical elements in absolute, and the music's narratives are supported by dramatic physicality, an orchestral richness of sonority, and exceptional colouristic quality.
Liszt's Etudes d'execution transcendante enshrine the spirit of High Romanticism embodying extremes of expressive drama and technical virtuosity. His encyclopedic approach to technique is shown at its most dazzling in this cycle, heard in the 1852 revision which Liszt himself declared 'the only authentic one'. Integration of musical and technical elements in absolute, and the music's narratives are supported by dramatic physicality, an orchestral richness of sonority, and exceptional colouristic quality.
Sofi a Lourenco was born in Oporto, where she completed graduate studies at the Conservatory and University. From the age of ten she was a pupil of Helena Sa e Costa and was also guided by several distinguished pianists, including Sequeira Costa, Vitaly Margulis and Alicia de Larrocha. She obtained a Soloist Diploma at the Berlin Universitat der Kunste and was awarded a Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation scholarship. She has been a professor at the Escola de Musica e das Artes do Espetaculo do Oporto since 1991. She completed the degree of Doctor of Music and Musicology at the University of Evora in 2005, under the guidance of Rui Vieira Nery and Ulrich Mahlert. Since 2007, been a member of the Centre for Research in Science and Arts Technology at the Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, where she is currently undertaking post doctoral studies. She enjoys an active career as a performer in Portugal and abroad, with a number of recordings to her credit.
Ivo Macek occupied a significant place in 20th-century Yugoslavian musical life as a pianist and educator. The Intermezzo is among his most poetic early miniatures together with Prelude and Toccata composed in 1987. Goran Filipec's performance pay homage to the Croatian composer Macek whose small but refined musical achievement has remained largely unknown to international audiences.
Prize-winning French composer Laurent Petitgirard has written accomplished music in many forms, notably symphonic works and music for film and television, but it is as an operatic composer that he has received perhaps the greatest acclaim. His opera on the subject of Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, was hailed as "a compelling and moving score - the composer's melodic gift is very much his own" (Sunday Telegraph). Guru, completed in 2009, is a work of similar stature. Ostensibly it concerns mass suicides in a cult, reminiscent of the 1978 Jonestown suicides, but Petitgirard's pleas for humanity and against manipulation are expressed with tremendous and very personal power and with compelling theatrical immediacy.
The eclectic career of multi award-winning composer Laurent Petitgirard has seen him become one of France's leading musicians and conductors, as well as taking him into the worlds of opera and ballet. The Journey to the West is a ballet that tells the story of a monk named Xuanzang who is sent on a perilous journey of redemption from China to India in order to seek out the scriptures of truth in the land of Buddha. the ordeals of Xuanzang and his companions are expressed in music that reflects the poetry and spiritual elevation found in this great monument of Chinese literature.
Between 30 August and 3 September 2010, acclaimed young Chinese violinist Tianwa Yang joined Sinfonia Finlandia Jyvaskyla and conductor Patrick Gallois at Hankasalmi Church in Finland to record Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto D minor, Violin Concerto E minor and selections from Songs Without Words for release on Naxos 8.572662.
Messiaen wrote Les offrandes oubliees (The Forgotten Offerings) , his first published orchestral work, in the summer of 1930, just after completing his studies at the Paris Conservatoire. Its premiere six months later attracted much press attention; the critic Guy Chastel remarked in Les Amities (1931) on the bold originality of the music, noting that such sustained, emotional music inspired by religious faith was refreshingly unusual on the contemporary music scene.
The work is subtitled 'a symphonic meditation' and is split into three parts: two extremely slow sections flanking a violent, ferocious one. In a short poem at the front of the score, Messiaen describes the slow, sad opening as a depiction of Christ's sacrifice on the Cross; in the middle section, he likens man's 'breathless, frenzied, ceaseless descent into sin' to a descent into the grave; and the ending, marked 'with great pity, and great love', represents the Eucharist, and reminds us of Christ's love for mankind.
Messiaen wrote Les offrandes oubliees (The Forgotten Offerings) , his first published orchestral work, in the summer of 1930, just after completing his studies at the Paris Conservatoire. Its premiere six months later attracted much press attention; the critic Guy Chastel remarked in Les Amities (1931) on the bold originality of the music, noting that such sustained, emotional music inspired by religious faith was refreshingly unusual on the contemporary music scene.
The work is subtitled 'a symphonic meditation' and is split into three parts: two extremely slow sections flanking a violent, ferocious one. In a short poem at the front of the score, Messiaen describes the slow, sad opening as a depiction of Christ's sacrifice on the Cross; in the middle section, he likens man's 'breathless, frenzied, ceaseless descent into sin' to a descent into the grave; and the ending, marked 'with great pity, and great love', represents the Eucharist, and reminds us of Christ's love for mankind.
Messiaen wrote Les offrandes oubliees (The Forgotten Offerings) , his first published orchestral work, in the summer of 1930, just after completing his studies at the Paris Conservatoire. Its premiere six months later attracted much press attention; the critic Guy Chastel remarked in Les Amities (1931) on the bold originality of the music, noting that such sustained, emotional music inspired by religious faith was refreshingly unusual on the contemporary music scene.
The work is subtitled 'a symphonic meditation' and is split into three parts: two extremely slow sections flanking a violent, ferocious one. In a short poem at the front of the score, Messiaen describes the slow, sad opening as a depiction of Christ's sacrifice on the Cross; in the middle section, he likens man's 'breathless, frenzied, ceaseless descent into sin' to a descent into the grave; and the ending, marked 'with great pity, and great love', represents the Eucharist, and reminds us of Christ's love for mankind.
Poemes pour Mi is not a romantic or sentimental expression of love; instead it is imbued with a deeply personal sense of mystery and spirituality, portraying human love as inextricably connected to the love of God and of nature. Le paysage paints an idyllic picture of the lakes and country side around Petichet.
Featuring the composer's early piano works, Per Norgard's Piano Sonata consisting of three movements has a neo-classical overall style with hints of Stravinsky and Prokofiev 'light'. The character is playful and quasi-improvisatory, with a skilfully judged balance between seriousness, lightness and bravura.
It is particularly interesting to note that in the development of the first movement we hear an ostinato bass figure, the movement patterns of which already anticipate the melodic infinity series, discovered a decade later and first used twenty years later, that became especially characteristic of Norgard's mature music.
Jacques Offenbach is best remembered for his operettas, but the dramatic Ouverture a grand orchestre is a rarely heard early piece that presages his future in musical theatre.
By far the most substantial in terms of duration, Offenbach's Ouverture a grand orchestre is the earliest music to feature here, composed in 1843 when he was just 24 years old. At this time he was playing the cello in fashionable salons and shared a platform with Liszt in Paris, as well as being summoned to perform for royalty all over Europe. His compositions from this period include numerous fantasies on popular operas and also the Ouverture a grand orchestre. With its skilful writing and light touch, this dramatic work presages the composer's theatrical future, revealing as it does the influence of such models as Spohr, Herold and Weber .
With this unique programme, Hangzi Wang takes us into the 'fairy-tale world of the accordion' in works by Danish composers that explore both the darkness and luminosity of Hans Christian Andersen's famous stories.
Performed by up and coming artist, Hangzi Wang, is the accordion's best perfect ambassador. Praised for her engaging stage presence and performances that are technically and musically brilliant, her career has already taken her around the globe with performances in Europe and Asia. As First Prize winner of the Young Concert Artists International
Auditions in New York, she is now introducing US audiences to the accordion with recitals throughout the country, including debuts in New York at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall and in Washington, DC at the Kennedy Center. Other distinctions include first prizes in several music competitions around the world.
The String Quintet No. 10 in F minor, Op. 32 was first published in 1827, the year of Beethoven's death. As was typical for the time, no full score was produced of the piece: only parts were made available, since the notion of 'studying' a work in a full scored format was only to become the norm gradually, and largely as a result of musicians and music-lovers struggling to study and come to grips with the innovations of Beethoven's last string quartets.
The String Quintet No. 28 in G minor, Op. 72 , is an effective bringing together of Baroque poise and rich Romantic writing. The final two movements of the G minor Quintet are full of bounce and energy, with the Finale reintroducing chromatic material similar to the opening, destabilising the music it goes, bringing it to an exciting climax and conclusion.
The Spring Symphony was reportedly Paine's favourite among his own works. The second movement - Scherzo , in traditional ABA form, was thought by some to be the symphony's finest movement; it was performed as a separate work at the Music Teachers National Association convention in 1887.
Composer-Producer William Perry has played a major role in the revival of interest in silent films, both through his more than one hundred silent film scores and through his Emmy Award-winning television series, The Silent Years , hosted by Orson Welles and Lillian Gish.
A rich array of Perry's film music was presented in the critically-acclaimed Naxos recording, Music for Great Films of the Silent Era (8.572567). Now this companion volume offers a further view of Perry's colorful and exuberant writing, including his new Silent Film Heroines song-suite for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, celebrating eight of the legendary actresses of the silent cinema. Perry's supremely melodic sense of period and style captures perfectly the romance, grandeur and humor of those entertaining days when "Movies were movies!"
In his masterful arrangement of Piazzolla's Las cuatro estaciones portenas , the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov reimagines Piazzolla's music in a concerto style for solo violin and string orchestra, in combination with elements inspired by Vivaldi's Four Seasons . The Estaciones are a respectful nod to Vivaldi. Vivaldian traces can be heard in the music, most obviously in the closing bars of Invierno Porteno .
In his masterful arrangement of Piazzolla's Las cuatro estaciones portenas , the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov reimagines Piazzolla's music in a concerto style for solo violin and string orchestra, in combination with elements inspired by Vivaldi's Four Seasons .
In his masterful arrangement of Piazzolla's Las cuatro estaciones portenas , the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov reimagines Piazzolla's music in a concerto style for solo violin and string orchestra, in combination with elements inspired by Vivaldi's Four Seasons
Piazzolla composed dozens of movie soundtracks. Among those is Celos which was part of the film score for La intrusa in 1982.
In 1969, which Piazolla wrote for his first quintet. Fugata is the first movement of three of Tangata (Sylphe and Ondine'), dedicated to the choreographer Oscar Araiz who had used his music in a recent Ana Itelman ballet in Buenos Aires for a never released documentary on the tango.
Sylphe is the spirit of the air, Ondine, the spirit of water; the two protectors in his life. The three movements are: Fugata, Soledad and Final. Piazzolla recorded Fugata with his first quintet in 1969 and his second quintet in 1989.
In August 1930, Segovia wrote to Ponce requesting the composer to write a sonatina 'of a purely Spanish character'. Segovia performed the second and third movements in Madrid on 19 February 1932, and played the entire work for the first time at the Palau de la Musica Catalana, Barcelona ten days later. In 1939 the guitarist had the work published with Schott under the title of Sonatina meridional (Southern Sonatina), and provided a subtitle for each movement. He recorded the piece in June 1949 for HMV.
The Sonatina meridional evokes the lyrical warmth of Iberia. The first movement (named Campo by Segovia), suggests the atmosphere of the countryside, while the last movement, Fiesta, has the rhythmic excitement and vitality that its name implies. The slow movement, Copla, is a superb example of the composer's lyrical gifts and his subtle mastery of harmony.
Stretching back from the stark Soviet soundscape of Shostakovich , through the early modernism of Prokofiev to the pre-revolutionary opulence of Scriabin and Rachmaninov , Septura redresses a lack of original music for brass by these great composers by charting a turbulent seventy years of Russian history. Brass instruments feature prominently in these composers' symphonic output, and Septura is a natural fit for their chamber music.
Pianist Boris Giltburg sees Rachmaninov's Etudes-tableaux, Op. 39 as cinematic short stories or colourful tone paintings. In contrast, the unashamedly beautiful Moments musicaux are concentrated explorations of a single idea or mood, from struggle and pain towards light and genuine joy.
Pianist Boris Giltburg sees Rachmaninov's Etudes-tableaux, Op. 39 as cinematic short stories or colourful tone paintings. In contrast, the unashamedly beautiful Moments musicaux are concentrated explorations of a single idea or mood, from struggle and pain towards light and genuine joy. In these collections, which contain some of the composer's most affecting music, Rachmaninov shows himself to be a master of the meticulously crafted short-form genre.
It was common practice in Rameau's time to produce a suite of
ballet movements from operas to perform in concert. This performance by Septura features the classic 'French' Ouverture from Darnanus , with its grandiose dotted-rhythm opening giving way to a compelling energetic movement, is a musical highlight of the opera.
An iconic product of the Mexican Revolution, Redes (1935) combines the talents of a master composer, Silvestre Revueltas , and a master cinematographer, Paul Strand . Its marriage of music and the moving image attains heights of epic grandeur. The co-directors are Fred Zinnemann (en route to Hollywood) and Emilio Gomez Muriel . Because dialogue rarely overlaps music, it is possible to rerecord Revueltas's galvanizing score and discover musical riches inaudible on the original monaural soundtrack. As the Redes concert suites by Revueltas and Erich Kleiber omit much, the present DVD is the world premiere recording of Revueltas's full score, one of the highest achievements in the history of film music.
Between 26-29 October 2009 in the Karjaa Church, Finland, Pauliina Fred (flauto traverso), Aapo Hkkinen (harpsichord) and Heidi Peltoniemi (cello) recorded Franz Xaver Richter's Sonate da camera IV, V and VI for release on Naxos 8.572030.
Invocacion y Danza (Homenaje a Manuel de Falla) dedicated to the Venezuelan guitarist, Alirio Diaz, won First Prize in the 1961 Coupe International de Guitare, held in Paris. The French magazine Combat described the work as 'a page full of song, poetry, Mediterranean finesse, and elegant writing'.
From a subtle opening of harmonics and fragments of arpeggios, the Invocacion flowers into an intricate pattern of melody and broken chords in which delicacy of effect is matched by clarity and complexity. The Danza is the Andalusian polo, a reminder of the last of Manuel de Falla's Seven Popular Spanish Songs . After the rhythmic opening bars, the music develops into passages of tremolo and brilliant showers of demisemiquavers, the tremolo returning eventually in an extended section. The piece closes with
sparse harmonics, a fleeting but expressive reference to a theme from Falla's ballet, El Amor Brujo , and a final murmuring arpeggio.
The Overture was that originally written for the opera Aureliano in Palmira , later modified by Rossini to serve the same purpose for the opera Elisabetta, regina d'Inghilterra .
The E Major Andante maestoso introduction to the overture leads to an E Minor Allegro con brio, its first theme entrusted to the strings and the second, in G Major, to the oboe, then flute and horn. An impressive crescendo is succeeded by a recapitulation and an emphatic coda.
Rossini is said to have written the La Cenerentola in three weeks. The overture, borrowed from the recently composed La gazzetta , is a popular concert item. It opens with an introductory Maestoso, leading, as expected, to an Allegro vivace, its second theme introduced by the clarinet, to return in recapitulation with piccolo and bassoon. The movement largely follows Rossini's usual practice, a modified use of sonata-form, a slow introduction, an Allegro with two contrasting themes, the second usually entrusted to wind instruments, a recapitulation and a coda.
Rossini's first opera, Demetrio e Polibio (Demetrius and Polybius) was written in 1808. A dramma serio in two acts, it was first performed at the Teatro Valle in Rome on 18th May 1812. It deals with the enmity between the kings of Syria and Parthia and the love of their daughter and son.
The overture summons attention at the start, followed by a gently lyrical bassoon melody which leads to the livelier principal melody, stated first by the oboe, and the second subject, entrusted to the bassoon. Diabelli, for a piano reduction published in Vienna, found it necessary to make certain adjustments to regularise the form of the recapitulation.
Rossini's one-act farsa, L'inganno felice (The Happy Deception), with a libretto by Giuseppe Foppa, was first performed at the Teatro San Mois? in Venice on 8th January 1812. Isabella, the wronged and banished wife of Duke Bertrando, long supposed dead, has in fact been rescued from the sea by the villager Tarabotto. The Duke, with his wicked confidant Ormondo and the latter's henchman Batone, comes to the village, where the duplicity of the villains is revealed. The opera, among Rossini's earlier works, is set in a mining village. Foppa also provided the libretto for Rossini's La scala di seta (The Silken Ladder) and Il Signor Bruschino , and, with less success, for Sigismondo.
After an introductory passage, the overture launches into a livelier melody and material that includes characteristic dramatic elements. The second theme of the Allegro is taken from the Sinfonia in D of 1808, and the overture was used again for Ciro in Babilonia, staged in Ferrara in March of the same year.
It was in 1813, relatively early in his career, that Rossini wrote L'Italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers) for the Teatro San Benedetto in Venice. The opera, which retains a firm place in international operatic repertoire, has a lively overture, which opens Andante, with plucked strings, accompanying an oboe melody, before an Allegro, its second subject entrusted, as so often, to wind instruments.
La scala di seta (The Silken Ladder) dates from the same year and is a collaboration again with the librettist Giuseppe Foppa, after a French original. It was first performed at the Teatro San Moise in Venice on 9th May 1812.
Giulia's secret marriage to her lover Dorvil is happily revealed when she engineers the marriage of her guardian's chosen husband for her, Dorvil's friend Blansac, with her cousin Lucilla. The opera starts with a popular overture, a frequent concert opener, drawn from this early example of Rossini's skill in handling comedy of this kind. The overture follows a familiar pattern, after the startling opening bars. An Andantino oboe melody leads the way to a brilliant Allegro, its two themes returning in recapitulation before the final chords.
Il Signor Bruschino , ossia Il figlio per azzardo (Signor Bruschino, or The Son by Chance) opens with an overture to match, with the novel feature of music stands tapped by the violin bow as part of the thematic material. Otherwise the form of the overture brings two contrasting themes, the first taken over from the early Sinfonia 'al Conventello' (Naxos 8.570933), the second, in the dominant key, introduced, as usual by wind instruments, and returning in the tonic key in the final recapitulation of the two themes.
Rossini's Sinfonia in D major , known as the Sinfonia di Bologna , was written 1808, one of a group of juvenilia largely eclipsed by the Six String Sonatas, written a few years before for his patron Agostino Triossi. The Sinfonia di Bologna provides, in its second subject, a subsidiary theme for the overture to L'inganno felice .
In 1804 Rossini wrote a set of six String Sonatas , for two violins, cello and double bass, commissioned by Agostino Triossi, a well-to-do landowner, living at Conventello, near Ravenna. These were to be played by Triossi on the double bass, with his cousins playing first violin and cello and Rossini himself taking the rather more demanding second violin part. A further commission from Triossi brought a D major Overture, known to many as Sinfonia al Conventello . The work is scored for pairs of flutes, oboes and clarinets, one bassoon, two horns, one trombone and strings, presumably representing the forces immediate available at Conventello. The slow introduction is followed by a faster section, with a first theme that was later used in the opera Il Signor Bruschino .
Tancredi's opening Sinfonia, an exciting introduction, is borrowed from the overture to La pietra del paragone . The slow introduction, marked Andante marcato, duly leads to an Allegro, its first theme initially entrusted to the strings, followed, after a dramatic transition, by the second theme, introduced by flute and clarinet, soon joined by the bassoon. A characteristic crescendo is followed by a recapitulation, the second theme now initiated by the oboe and first violins, leading in due course to the final coda.
The narrative of the piece, Danse macabre is based on an ancient legend, where Death appears at midnight every year on Halloween, summoning the dead from their graves to dance for him while he plays his fiddle. His skeletons dance until dawn breaks, when they must hide away again until the following year.
The piece opens with a harp playing a single note twelve times to represent the twelve strokes of midnight, followed by the solo violin's opening tritone (A and E flat) - an interval so dissonant that it was known as the diabolus in music (the Devil in music) during the Medieval and Baroque eras.
To achieve this on open strings, the E string of the solo violin must be tuned down a semitone to an E flat, in an example of scordatura tuning ( Bach , one of Saint-Saens' great musical heroes, makes a similar demand of the cello in the fifth of his Cello Suites ). The first, restless theme is heard on a solo flute, followed almost immediately by the second theme, a descending scale on the solo violin. The macabre element is emphasized further by the inclusion of the Diesirae Gregorian chant from the Latin Requiem Mass, but in A major rather than minor key, and in a playful manner rather than its usual solemn state. An energetic coda seems to lead the music to a conclusion,...
Between 8-10 July 2010 in Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth, Chinese pianist Duanduan Hao recorded keyboard sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti for release on Naxos 8.572586.
Schubert composed his three sublimely alluring Sonatas for Violin and Piano in the spring of 1816, though they had to wait until 1836 for posthumous publication by Diabelli , who re-named them 'sonatinas'. With their sometimes subordinate role for the violin and deceptively uncomplicated style, these pieces sidestep the influence of Beethoven and return more to the world of Mozart's later violin sonatas. The minor key works develop Schubert's gift for drama and vocal melody further, including hints of his famous song Erlkonig from the previous year.
Featured in this recording is the Violin Sonata in A Minor, D.385, Op. 137, No. 2 . It opens with a wide-spaced theme for the piano, the violin following with even wider-spaced dramatic intervals, and a second subject entrusted at first to the piano.
Schubert composed his three sublimely alluring Sonatas for Violin and Piano in the spring of 1816, though they had to wait until 1836 for posthumous publication by Diabelli , who re-named them 'sonatinas'. With their sometimes subordinate role for the violin and deceptively uncomplicated style, these pieces sidestep the influence of Beethoven and return more to the world of Mozart's later violin sonatas. The minor key works develop Schubert's gift for drama and vocal melody further, including hints of his famous song Erlkonig from the previous year.
Featured in this recording is the Violin Sonata in A Minor, D.385, Op. 137, No. 2 . It opens with a wide-spaced theme for the piano, the violin following with even wider-spaced dramatic intervals, and a second subject entrusted at first to the piano.
Boris Giltburg recording session for Schumann's Carnaval with producer Andrew Keener and engineer Phil Rowlands at Wyastone Concert Hall.
Stretching back from the stark Soviet soundscape of Shostakovich , through the early modernism of Prokofiev to the pre-revolutionary opulence of Scriabin and Rachmaninov , Septura redresses a lack of original music for brass by these great composers by charting a turbulent seventy years of Russian history. Brass instruments feature prominently in these composers' symphonic output, and Septura is a natural fit for their chamber music.
German violinist/composer Friedrich Seitz performed widely as a soloist and chamber musician as working as a conductor and founding the first music school of Magdeburg. The Concertos for Violin and Piano or Schuler-Konzerte (Student Concertos) are designed as introductions to violin tecnique, Seitz's genius being to create student works that are always tuneful and interesting, with flowing and expressively inventive melodies wonderful slow movements and plenty of carefully curated technical fireworks.
German violinist/composer Friedrich Seitz performed widely as a soloist and chamber musician as working as a conductor and founding the first music school of Magdeburg. The Concertos for Violin and Piano or Schuler-Konzerte (Student Concertos) are designed as introductions to violin tecnique, Seitz's genius being to create student works that are always tuneful and interesting, with flowing and expressively inventive melodies wonderful slow movements and plenty of carefully curated technical fireworks.
The Blazing Mirage for Cello and Strings was commissioned by the Musicus Society and premiered on October 26, 2012, by Trey Lee and the Munich Chamber Orchestra, Alexander Liebreich conducting, at the Concert Hall of City Hall, presented by the New Vision Arts Festival of Hong Kong.
The Blazing Mirage was inspired by the phenomenon of the Dunhuang Caves, which have arguably preserved the greatest Buddhist art frescos and manuscripts, dating back to the fourth century.
Colors of Crimson , commissioned by the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, was composed during the winter and spring of 2004. It is written for and dedicated to Evelyn Glennie, marimba soloist; Bramwell Tovey, conductor and Music Director, and the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra. The work premiered in September 16, 2004 in Luxembourg.
Notes from the Composer: Sheng Bright
To me, one of the most challenging aspects in writing for the marimba is the instrument's limited range of timbral variety. In this work, I've attempted to adjust this limitation by using different orchestral devices; some of them are subtle while at other times some are bold. What I hope to provide is a diversity of tonal hues within the overall
monotonic timbre of the marimba - Colors of Crimson .
The basic thematic material of the work comes from a reconstruction of a love song I wrote during my teenage years. At the time, I was living in Qinghai - a remote province of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in northwest China - where the folk music tradition has always been abundant.
In The Song and Dance of Tears , the composer did not attempt to
recreate the scenes and music he heard during a two month trip in the ancient Silk Road within the contemporary Chinese border. Rather, the work serves as an evocation of the impressions and emotions that stayed with him deeply.
The result was both fascinating and eye-opening. Not only was he profoundly touched by the beautiful music from the region, he also realized how significantly the musics of different ethnic groups have been inspiring and infiltrating each other for thousands of years. And just as there is no pure blood in any race, there is no true nationalistic music either. Bartok , speaking of Slavic folk music, believed that the most interesting music was the music from the regions bordering more than one ethnicity. And that can certainly be said of all the musical styles he encountered during the trip. However, a border line has never truly existed on the Silk Road. This is true fusion in its finest sense.
The tune he constructed for the last section of the work, Tears, was based on materials of several folk songs he heard during the trip. One of them was titled Tears, in which an old man laments his lost youth.
The Basel Sinfonietta, conducted by Mark Fitz-Gerald, has recorded Shostakovich's 1928 score for Grigori Kozintsev and Leonid Trauberg's silent black-and-white film New Babylon at the Volkshaus in the orchestra's home town. The recording, which took place between 1st and 3rd May 2011 and was produced by Andreas Werner, was made between a run of live performances in Switzerland and Luxembourg.
Stretching back from the stark Soviet soundscape of Shostakovich , through the early modernism of Prokofiev to the pre-revolutionary opulence of Scriabin and Rachmaninov , Septura redresses a lack of original music for brass by these great composers by charting a turbulent seventy years of Russian history. Brass instruments feature prominently in these composers' symphonic output, and Septura is a natural fit for their chamber music.
Duo-Sonata , like many of the other works on this album, was commissioned by Emilie Fend and Andreas Hermanski. In the words of the composer, the piece 'conforms to the Classical form concept. Not only does the first movement conform with the sonata-allegro form, but it also keeps the four movements of many works from the early 19th century.' If the listeners can easily recognize such a formal plan, they might also experience a sense of slight contrast with the qualities of Sierra's musical language. This is, as a matter of fact, quite modernist, yet expressive - all managed within a very balanced and thought-out approach to writing.
Aus Lieb' zu ihr! belongs to a tiny clutch of works by Eduard Strauss that were created as choral works for the prestigious Wiener Mannergesang-Verein (Vienna Men's Choral Association). With a text by the composer's friend, Jacques Kowy (1834-1911), and with Eduard conducting the Strauss Orchestra, Aus Lieb' zu ihr! was sung for the first time at the Association's 'Carnival Programme of Songs' in the Sophienbad-Saal on 24 January 1876.
The critic for Die Presse declared that the new polka's 'melodious rhythms were very pleasing', and the published work was dedicated to the Association. As a purely orchestral concert number - as on this present recording - Aus Lieb' zu ihr! was given its first public performance on 5 March in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein when Eduard introduced it, alongside 14 other novelties, at his annual 'Carnival Revue' of all his new dances written for the current year's carnival festivities.
Just three hours after a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on 24 November 1889, the Great Hall of the Vienna Musikverein was sold out for Eduard Strauss's afternoon benefit concert. This popular musical event was further enhanced by the participation of the beneficiary's brother Johann, giving the first Viennese performance under his own direction of his Kaiser-Walzer ('Emperor Waltz').
In light of this, it is perhaps surprising to read the opinion of the Wiener Tagblatt's critic that it was primarily Eduard's own compositions 'which received the warmest and most sympathetic reception, in particular the French polka O schone Jugendzeit , which was performed for the first time. It is a dance piece as fresh as it is tunefuland should soon be heard in every ballroom.' The Neues Wiener Tagblatt concurred, noting that the new polka 'met with great approval and three encores were demanded.' O schone Jugendzeit was initially published by Eduard himself, following a split with his publisher August Cranz in 1888, and it bore a dedication to the Spanish aristocrat, musicologist, music critic and composer Guillermo Morphy y Ferriz de Guzman (1836-1899).
Cavatina is a tribute to Italy and in particular to Venice, and
Tansman noted that it 'wrote itself'. The movements are formally simple, except for Scherzino, which is in A-B-A form. Recorded by Segovia in 1954, the Cavatina proved to be the Polish composer's most popular work for guitar.
In 1974, the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition was inaugurated in Tel Aviv, and for this event Tansman composed a two-movement work which he called Hommage a Arthur Rubinstein in honour of his famous Polish compatriot and old friend.
In 1974, the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition was inaugurated in Tel Aviv, and for this event Tansman composed a two-movement work which he called Hommage a Arthur Rubinstein in honour of his famous Polish compatriot and old friend.
Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky's The Crown of Roses is the first of several of the ensemble's Christmas pieces that use the image of the Christ-child to presage the grim reality of Jesus's fate. It is popular as a carol despite its stark subject - the other children made Jesus a crown of thorns "and with rough fingers pressed it down, till on his forehead fair and young, red drops of blood like roses sprung".
The text, by Richard Henry Stoddard, was translated into Russian and
originally set by Tchaikovsky for voice and piano in his Sixteen Children's Songs (1884). He later reworked this for a cappella choir, and this is the version that the group have transcribed. Three verses and a coda in the sombre key of E minor contrast childlike innocence - for which we use the homogenous warmth of the brass section - with violence and pain - for which we unleash our full power.
The work Cancoes do Sonhador Solitario (Songs from The Solitary Dreamer) - is a reduction of a cantata for narrator, soprano, children's chorus, orchestra and electronics, written in 2011 to a commission from Porto's Casa da Musica and setting a libretto by Portuguese writer Almeida Faria. For this shorter cycle, the composer has retained four songs for soprano and orchestra that have a poetic substance of their own, eliminating the narrative passages and choral dialogues.
The final text, O Anjo da agua (The Angel of Water),is about a female guardian angel who skims the fast-flowing waters, always looking ahead, and never back.The music here is again made up of repetitive pulses and long orchestral chords from which, eventually, fragmentary motifs emerge. The repetitive rhythms permeate the entire movement as the music box did in Um livro. The orchestration, however, means that in this case the music takes on not a dreamlike but a dramatic,imperious dimension. And so not only this cycle, but the album as a whole is brought to a close - no abrupt ending here, rather a kind of evanescence, a lingering resonance that never quite fades away.
Hommage a Tom Jobim was inspired by the music of the Brazilian composer Antonio Carlos Jobim (1927-1994), also known as Tom Jobim. He was one of the creators of the bossa nova style. Some aspects of the movements are typical of this genre, featuring Latin American rhythms as well as contemporary fiery guitar percussion.
Jam Beat - the third movement, a fiery theme with an impulsive rhythm for jazz improvisation.
Some of Vassiliev Konstantin compositions have emerged through synthesizing different ideas, and Obrio is one of these. The composer wanted to combine two sides of his musical perception, which was formed primarily, of course, under the influence of Russian culture. On the other hand, Western heritage (including Latin American heritage) is inevitably transmitted and absorbed through modern guitar music. Yuri Liberzon and Patrick O'Connell perfectly capture the essence and message of this music.
Session recording of ballet excerpts from Verdi's I vespri siciliani . The recording was made at the Poole Arts Centre by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jose Serebrier, in 15-18 May 2011. Released with catalogue number 8.572818-19.
The Trio in B minor was one of the last works written by Viana da Mota before he started using traditional Portuguese poetry and song in his compositions and thus represents the culmination of his 'Germanic' phase.
Choros No. 1 itself was dedicated to the charismatic pianist composer Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934), but also pays overt homage to Satiro Bilhar, legendary choro guitarist and author of Tira poeira, dubbed a "damned" polka by fellow musician Donga, who recounted how "Satiro would go into a house, say good evening, and immediately win over everyone present. Then he would slip his hat into his pocket, so that when he wanted a change of air he was spared the ceremony of having to ask the mistress of the house to get it for him." Choros No. 1 has all the enigmatic wit of Bilhar, as well as the sublime blend of melancholy and disenchantment that characterized Nazareth.
Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) is one of the most remarkable achievements in all music, and Siegfried , the third in the cycle, contains some of the greatest moments in Richard Wagner's entire output.
Wagner conceived Siegfried as a heroic 'man of the future', and his fantastical tale is one in which the human dramas of treachery and violent struggles for power become magnified in a world of gods, dragons and magic.
Comprising four separate operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung) is one of the supreme works in the history of music. Part II of the tetralogy, Die Walkure , centres on the young lovers Siegmund and Sieglinde, whose relationship angers Fricka, goddess of marriage, and on the disobedience of the Valkyrie Brunnhilde who is sent to carry out Fricka's wishes. Performed by an all-star international cast, the work features thrilling set-pieces such as Wotan's Farewell and the Ride of the Valkyries.
The single-movement Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Ballade, is dedicated to the great Romanian violinist and composer George Enescu , the principal later teacher of Yehudi Menuhin in Paris. It opens in the manner of a recitative, leading to a passage in 5/4 and then a 3/8 Allegro giusto with dotted rhythms, as the tale unfolds, followed by rapid triplet figuration and a brief relaxation, before the dotted rhythms return, leading to the excitement of the ending.
