SKU: HL.50600872

8.25x11.75x0.077 inches.

The operas of Marius Felix Lange, especially “Snow White,” “The Canterville Ghost,” “Die Schneekönigin,” “Das Opernschiff oder Am Südpol, denkt man, ist es heisse” have been incredibly successful. Many of his operas have also been performed on foreign stages, including those in Switzerland and France. Other points of emphasis in Lange's work include orchestral compositions and Lieder. The American violinist Hilary Hahn had an unusual yet very clever idea in 2012 when she requested encore pieces from present-day composers. The cycle “In 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores” were consecutively premiered by the violinist until the end of the 2012/13 season and recorded on CD. Amongst the submissions selected by Hilary Hahn during the course of an online contest, Marius Felix Lange's violin piece “Nutcracker's Nightmare” immediately ended up amongst the ten best-placed works. The title “Nutcracker's Nightmare” recalls E.T.A. Hoffmann's famous fairytale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” the gloomily imaginative story in which a wooden toy is awakened to life and has to fight against the powers of darkness.

SKU: HL.49044181

ISBN 9790001197939. 9.25x12.0x0.263 inches.

Die zweite Violinsonate op. 58 entstand im November und Dezember 2009 und ist als freundliches Gegenstuck zu der duster-aufgewuhlten ersten Violinsonate op. 38 (2000) konzipiert. Die helle Grundstimmung des Werkes ist sicherlich nicht zuletzt durch seinen Enstehungsort Cervo an der ligurischen Riviera, meiner italienischen Wahlheimat, buchstablich bei Sonnenschein unter blauem Himmel entstanden, beeinflusst.Dem ganzen Werk liegt ein musikalisches Motto zugrunde, das jedoch erst im abschliessenden zehntaktigen Adagio amoroso, das aus einer versunkenen Welt zu entstammen scheint, verraten wird. Alles Material ist darauf bezogen und die ganze Sonate scheint eigentlich nur komponiert worden zu sein, um diese Schlussaussage formulieren zu konnen.Der erste Satz ist ein breit angelegtes Moderato mit zwei Themen in strenger Sonatenhauptsatzform. Sowohl thematisches Material als auch alle formalen Verbindungsglieder sind harmonisch wie melodisch aus den Intervallen der kleinen und grossen Terz und deren Komplementarintervallen, der grossen und kleinen Sext gebildet. Dieses beinahe serielle Verfahren wird allerdings von dem uberschwanglich romantischen Gestus der Musik vollkommen kaschiert.Der sehr schnelle, federleicht schwebende zweite Scherzosatz wird beherrscht vom luftigen Pizzicato der Violine und fluchtigen Klavierfiguren, nur im gesanglichen Trio erhebt sich die Violine zu einer vierphrasigen, langsam aufsteigenden Kantilene auf choralartig akkordischem Untergrund des Klaviers.Die langsame Einleitung des Finalsatzes nahert sich dem abschliessenden Motto bereits sehr deutlich ohne es ganz erklingen zu lassen. Diese Introduktion wird in die Mitte des zweithemigen, feurig dahinsturmenden Allegro anstelle einer Durchfuhrung wieder aufgenommen und in den lebhaften Gestus des Schlusssatzes umgewandelt. Mit dem Erklingen des eigentlichen Herzstuck des Werkes als Adagio amoroso schliesst das Werk, sicherlich sehr uberraschend fur Neue Musik.- Stefan Heucke.

SKU: FP.FPT05

ISBN 9790570504275.

Thomas Pitfield had a gift for memorable tunes, often couched in somewhat French-sounding harmonic and decorative idiom. He admired Vaughan Williams, Grainger and Delius and their influence can be felt in his works.

This second violin sonata has been long unpublished, but is now released by Forsyth Publishing to mark 25 years since his passing in 1999 and the publication of a new biography of his life.

SKU: HL.49045822

ISBN 9781540024749. UPC: 888680737764. 9.25x12.0x0.29 inches.

The Kreutzer Sonata was originally dedicated not to Rudolphe Kreutzer (who never performed it) but to George Bridgetower, a famed 18th-century Afro-European concert violinist. In an early draft, Beethoven jokingly labeled the piece in starkly racialized terms: Sonata Mulattica composed for the mulatto Brischdauer, big wild mulatto composer.Beethoven and Bridgetower performed the premiere, which was by all accounts a success, and even featuring some improvised embellishment by the violinist. While celebrating afterwards, the two quarreled about what Beethoven construed as Bridgetower's insult of a female acquaintance; the composer then revoked the original dedication, adding Kreutzer's name instead. The work gained acclaim, while Bridgetower's career languished; he eventually died in poverty.Bridgetower has been the subject of considerable research and speculation, most notably in poet Rita Dove's book, Sonata Mulattica. From our 21st-century vantage, considering Bridgetower's unique circumstance, we can only see him as an ambiguous figure who, in embodying difference, provoked inspiration, fantasy, desire, anger and, finally, erasure.My piece is a collection of imaginings about George Bridgetower. It is not programmatic, but it takes on an episodic character, assembled from contrasting fragments. The dance rhythms, recurring figures and gestural contours are intended to feature the embodied expertise and expressivity of the performers, who at times must access liminal sounds and execute complex synchronies. I am grateful to Jenny Koh and Shai Wosner for involving me in their beautiful, virtuosic music-making.

SKU: OU.9780193554832

ISBN 9780193554832. 12 x 8 inches.

The work is in three movements - the first is fast and aggressive and is based on a sequence that repeats throughout the rest of the piece. The second movement is, by contrast, slow and would seem to have been bruised by the first. The final movement renews the aggressive vehemence of the opening and grimly combines it with material from the slow movement. The work has, therefore, an A B A pattern.