Nocturno no. 11 Op. 32

SKU: AY.CM3118PM

ISBN 9790543572966.

A day, that I was looking some poetry books in a bookstore, I found the poem Nocturno III from the colombian poet Jose Asuncion Silva (1885-1896). This poem greatly impressed me and I was sure that some day I will put it in music. Only one month after, I was writting the score for Sphera Ensamble for a concert at the Centre de Cultura Contemporanea from Barcelona into the Fifth Avuimusica Season.
The poem is enormously tragical, romantic and very deep. We can see in it two parts, so the score follows this structure. With a enicmatics bass drum strokes in pianissimo (the percussion always draw the drammatic sence of the text) start the first part, sweet and evocative one, where a declaim voice is following by a violin in a medium and a high register, and then appears the violocello, playing in these same registers.
With the impact entrance, even brutal of the piano at the end of the first part, the music goes to a tragical way and those initial bass drum strokes in pianissimo now become a very strong ones, like a very incisive bells, maked between the piano and the tam-tam, the second part come in. Here the music is lower, serious and deeper, except the part when the text speak about the cold, here the music is static and sweeter, reaching the highs registers of the instruments, above all the piano. Finally, the work goes to a drammatic final, in fortissimo and can hear some leit-motiv, like that of la sombra (the shadow) played always by the percussion.

SKU: BR.EB-8908

ISBN 9790004185742. 9 x 12 inches.

Nocturno Virtuoso Adolf Busch was not only a phenomenal violinist from the first half of the 20th century, but he also wrote musical pieces in a tremendous variety of genres for concert performances as well as home use. Busch's brother Hermann was a cellist and member of the acclaimed Busch Quartet; his first wife Frieda played the clarinet. It was to her that Busch dedicated the larger part of the four pieces gathered here under opus 53 and composed between 1927-1943 for clarinet and various string scorings. One exception is the profusely rich and charming Serenade op. 53b, which Busch dedicated to his friend Hans Ritz in Basel. The scoring and compositional techniques of the work hint at Reger, Mozart and even beyond, whereby it is undeniable that Busch is firmly rooted in the musical tradition. Moreover, virtuosity and melodic lines in the Nocturno are influenced by Busch's prolific experience as an instrumental soloist. Adolf Busch wrote 70 works with opus numbers and about as many without, which were intended for home use. Rediscovered and increasingly performed, Busch's music is now conquering the place it deserves in concert programs. The present edition is part of Breitkopf's series of chamber music by Adolf Busch.

SKU: ST.C463

ISBN 9790570814633.

This volume contains contrasting works by Federico Ruiz spanning quite a large and rich period of his compositional output that goes from his early Micro-Suite (1971), to lilting, sweet and rhythmic Venezuelan waltzes passing by the mysterious, intimate, and intense Nocturno (1994) plus pieces originally composed for film, and theatre. Real eclecticism in styles, moods and atmospheres that show Ruizâ??s talents and scope.

The Nocturno is a deep, intriguing, substantial piece presenting a satisfying length which moves from different paths of the mind and the heart written in an abstract, chromatic idiom, that does not dissociate itself from the Venezuelan waltz and the joropo. One could perhaps say that there is a deconstruction of the latter. For the interpretation, the composer has suggested to me that it is allowed to have some flexibility in the tempo. Ruiz kindly dedicated it to me, and I have had the pleasure of performing it in many concerts.

Although all highly expressive, the Three Venezuelan Waltzes present in this collection as well as the piece titled Aliseo, are works that are close to the colourful Venezuelan folk tradition. Federico Ruiz had given me two of them when we first met: â??Tu Presenciaâ?? (1981) and â??Eloísaâ?? (1989) and then I attended a performance of the play â??Office Number Oneâ?? by Miguel Otero Silva with a fantastic actor, Elba Escobar in the role of Carmen Rosa and, I just fell in love and was very moved by the incidental music that I later discovered, by reading the programme, had been written by Federico Ruiz. Later that evening, I called him and asked to please make a piano score of the composition, so I could have the desired piece in my hands. That is how â??Carmen Rosaâ? waltz (1987) came to exist in a piano version.

â??Eloisaâ?? is another Venezuelan waltz with more jazzy harmonies where precision in the rhythm and elegant playing is also essential, as it is in most of his pieces.

â??Tu Presenciaâ?? was dedicated to his mother, Margarita. It is written with the structure of the Venezuelan waltz, which consists of a nostalgic subject that leads to a faster, happier middle section where the typical graceful rhythm is given by the left-hand accompaniment figure of a dotted crotchet followed by a quaver and a crotchet.

The craft and magic found in the five movements of the Micro-Suite is based on a dodecaphonic row by Ernst Krenek. They remind us of the idiom of the Second Viennese School. These real miniatures seem to tell short stories. The â??Preludioâ?? is full of humour. I imagine dancing figures given by the jumps all over the keyboard and extreme dynamics; the phrases give the impression of a conversation with many questions and answers. The â??Invenciónâ?? is a kaleidoscopic piece where the hands mirror each other. The â??Passacagliaâ?? is the longest movement, at just over a minute where the prime motif is repeated three times on the bass line. For its construction Federico Ruiz uses as well the retrograde and the retrograde inversion of the twelve-tone series. It must be played expressively with dynamic contrasts between pianissimo and louder events. The â??Scherzoâ?? has repetitive motifs of a minor third in both hands and the â??Finalâ?? displays virtuosic passages for the pianist.

Aliseo was originally written for the film â??Aire libreâ? (1995), by Luis Armando Roche. It contains elements of diverse types of Venezuelan joropo. In the film, the character of Aliseo Carvallo is played by the composer himself who performs this piece on a harpsichord to welcome scientists Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland one day at the turn of the 1800â??s, as a sample of the new music from the South American land. It presents the refinement of the late European classical era in fusion with Venezuelan folk music.

SKU: HL.49017756

ISBN 9790001157421. UPC: 884088452438. 9.25x12.0x0.16 inches.

SKU: HL.49045796

UPC: 841886032903.

This sonata is articulated in three movements built on Basque themes. The Obertura, presents in a powerful and solemn setting the melody of Agur Jaunak. The Nocturno, is a slow and expressive variation on the melody of Haurtxo tipia. The conclusive movement, Feria, is a set of variations on the melody of Kinkiri-Kunkuru.

SKU: TM.06802SET

1-Intro, 2-Nocturno, 3-Menuetto, 4-Prelude,Les Vents,Marche.

SKU: PD.PIL1357

SKU: HL.49022448

ISBN 9790001142069. 9.0x12.0x0.15 inches.

SKU: HF.FH-3410

ISBN 9790203434108. 8.3 x 11.7 inches.