SKU: HL.14020992
ISBN 9780711936805. 9.0x12.0x0.185 inches.
Unusually for him, Davies starts his Bassoon Concerto not with slow music but with speed and brilliance: the opening is a Presto, initiated by the strings, and only at the entry of the soloist does the tempo relax to that of a real introduction. Out of this grow a big dancing Allegro. The slow movement begins and ends with a simple song, around fantastical ornamentation from the soloist. The finale is again a recitative and dance, with a slow coda. The whole work is an immense show of stamina, poetry and athleticism for the bassoon, set against an orchestra coloured by low wind (alto flute, clarinet in A, bass clarinet, contrabassoon, horns). Bassoon part with piano reduction of the orchestral score.
SKU: HL.14008426
ISBN 9780711942042.
The solo flute here is kept in high profile by the absence from the orchestra not only of other flutes, but also of violins and oboes; in addition, the trumpets are used sparingly (they do not, for instance, play in the slow movement), so that for much of the time the flute is playing against a mellow ensemble of clarinets, horns, bassoons and low strings. If this is, nevertheless, one of Davies's most open-spirited pieces, that comes partly from the ready flights of the soloist, partly from its glockenspiel accompaniments in the outer movements (replaced by ticking claves in the Adagio), partly from the dancing character of so much of the music, and partly from the harmonic clarity, in a light region not far from C minor. Flute part with piano reduction of the orchestral score.
SKU: HL.14008425
ISBN 9780711933545.
Davies's feeling for the potency and bravura of the clarinet goes back to works of the 1960s; his concerto for the instrument is predictably a big, ranging piece, in two linked movements. The first, fast with a brief slow introduction, has the soloist in propulsive melodic flights slipping over into florid runs, but it is a virtuoso piece for the orchestra, especially for the marimba and pair of horns. The Adagio that follows is in the spare, cold, birdcall-riven style of other recent Davies slow movements, exploiting first the clarinet's low register and then, at its climax, the instrument's high extremes. A cadenza leads to the coda, where Davies introduces a Scots tune, previously hinted at, with which he brings the work to an end in F sharp major. Clarinet part with piano reduction of the orchestral score.
