SKU: FG.55011-372-5
ISBN 9790550113725.
Images of the sea figure prominently throughout my life and memories: from holidays on the Atlantic coast during my Canadian childhood to my current Baltic home, and the imagined, only later experienced Mediterranean of my ancestral heritage. As an immigrant (son of an immigrant) bound to two northern countries, the sea is emblematic of my twin homelands, from the expanses of water surrounding them to those separating them. A Mari usque ad Mare. The sea is also an enduring image of the unknown, of expanses unexplored, of the raw power of nature and, for too many currently, of terror holding a hope of refuge - or the pain of loss. Such disparate ideas were captured for me in the seascapes of the New York painter MaryBeth Thielhelm, whom I met in 2008 during a residency on the Gulf of Mexico. Her vast, abstract, nearly monochromatic depictions of imaginary seas in wildly varying moods were the catalyst for a concerto where the piano is frequently far from a hero battling a collective, but rather acts as a channel for elemental forces surging up from the orchestra, floating - sometimes barely so - on its constantly shifting surface. There are few themes to speak of, beyond a handful of iconic ideas that periodically cycle upward. Rather, the piano's material is largely an ornamentation of the more primal rhythmic and harmonic impulses from the orchestra below - a poetic interpretation, if you will, of the more immediate experience of facing the vastness of some unknown body of water. The title Nameless Seas is borrowed from one of Thielhelm's exhibitions, as are those of the four movements, which are bridged together into two halves of roughly equal weight - one rhapsodic and free, the other more single-minded and direct, separated only by a short breath. The opening movement, Nocturne, is predominantly calm, if brooding, darkness and light alternating throughout. Lyrical arabesques sparkle over gently lapping cross-currents in the strings and mirrored timpani, the piano's full power only rarely deployed. The waves gradually build, drawing in the full orchestra for a meeting of forces in Land and Sea, a brighter, more warmly lyrical scene that unfolds in series of dreamlike, sometimes even nostalgic visions, which for me carry strong memories of sitting on rocks above surging Atlantic waves. The third movement, Wake, is a fast, perpetual-motion texture of glinting, darting rhythms and sudden shafts of light, with a prominent part for the steel drums, limning the piano's quicksilver figurations. An ecstatic climax crashes into a solo cadenza that grows progressively calmer and more introspective rather than virtuosic. Much of the tension finally releases into Unclaimed Waters, a drifting, meditative seascape in which the piano is progressively engulfed by a series of ever-taller waves, ultimately dissolving into a tolling, rippling continuum of sound. It has been a great privilege to realize such a long-held dream as this piece, and to write it for not one, but two great pianists. Risto-Matti Marin and Angela Hewitt, both of whose friendship and support have been unfailing and humbling, share the dedication. Nameless Seas was commissioned by the PianoEspoo festival and Canada's National Arts Centre, with the premieres in Ottawa and Helsinki led by Hannu Lintu and Olari Elts. Thanks are due also to the Jenny and Antti Wihuri fund, whose generous grant provided me with much-needed time, and Escape to Create in Seaside, Florida, the source to which I returned to do a large part of the work.
SKU: BT.EMBZ13550
At first sight, this publication appears to be a collection of pieces, for the technical studies, not too attractive but so characteristic of tutors, are missing. Yet the selection of the works, their order according to the development of ensemble playing and the advice includeed after the foreword and containig proposals for the technical realization of ensemble playing in the case of certain typical pieces these all make this publication a tutor.The works form a cross-section of a longer period of the history of chamber music and offer an insight into thedifferent methods of composition. Volume III is approximately the same grade of difficulty as Volume II, but inViennese Classicism a more sophisticated handling of the bow is required. In addition to the works of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven pieces by less well-known masters are also included.
SKU: BT.EMBZ13548
At first sight, this publication appears to merely be a collection of pieces due to the lack of drier technical studies that are characteristic of tutors. Yet the selection of the works, their order according to the development of ensemble playing, and the advice towards technical realization included after the foreword - these all make this publication a tutor. The works form a cross-section of a longer period of the history of chamber music and offer an insight into the different methods of composition.Volume I contains easy chamber music from the Renaissance to Viennese Classicism for two violins and cello, in the first position. (In some works the 2nd violin part or others thecello part, respectively, can also be played on the viola.) The easier pieces can be played after two years of active instrumental study.
SKU: BR.PB-15160
ISBN 9790004215654. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Paganini's Capricci served as inspiration for many composers. In addition to Brahms, Schumann and Liszt, Rachmaninoff was also inspired by the idea. His Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini has since become one of his best known and most popular works and was an immediate success. In 1934, between two intense concert seasons, Rachmaninoff took advantage of the peace and quiet at his villa on Lake Lucerne to compose the Variations. Paganini's virtuosity and joy of playing are juxtaposed with the Gregorian sequence Dies irae. A symbol of the evil spirit to which Paganini sold his soul? At least that is how Rachmaninoff wrote it in a letter to the choreographer Fokine. For the demanding piano part, the composer and celebrated pianist himself had to start practicing very early: The composition is very difficult, and I should really start practicing now, but I get lazier with my finger exercises year after year.The editor, Norbert Gertsch, presents with this edition for the first time an Urtext edition of the work that Joachim Kaiser described as Rachmaninoff's most spiritual, witty, elegant work for piano..
SKU: BT.EMBZ13549
At first sight, this publication appears to merely be a collection of pieces due to the lack of drier technical studies that are characteristic of tutors. Yet the selection of the works, their order according to the development of ensemble playing, and the advice towards technical realization included after the foreword - these all make this publication a tutor. The works form a cross-section of a longer period of the history of chamber music and offer an insight into the different methods of composition.Volume II introduces the Baroque trio sonata through the works of the greatest masters (Vivaldi, Corelli, Albinoni, F. Couperin, Purcell and Bach). The two violin parts do not gobeyond the 3rd position nor the cello parts beyond the 4th position.
SKU: BR.PB-4485
Frederic Chopin's Piano Concertos in e minor op. 11 and f minor op. 21 were written when the composer had just barely entered his twenties.
EB 3942 is printed in score form; two copies are needed for performance.Have a look. Solo concerto; Romantic. Full score. 68 pages. Duration 30'. Breitkopf and Haertel #PB 4485. Published by Breitkopf and Haertel (BR.PB-4485).
ISBN 9790004203910. 9 x 12 inches.
Frederic Chopin's Piano Concertos in e minor op. 11 and f minor op. 21 were written when the composer had just barely entered his twenties. Since he needed effective, virtuoso works for his major concert appearances with orchestral accompaniment, he decided to simply write them himself. Although it is clear that the piano part always holds center stage in these pieces, Chopin never degrades the orchestra by turning it into a stereotypical cue-giver. This is confirmed by the imaginatively orchestrated tutti transition in the first movement, the lengthy string tremolo in the middle movement and the col legno passage in the finale.The first performance of the f-minor concerto took place in Warsaw on 17 March 1830. The first edition of the score was published in 1879 by Breitkopf & Hartel in Leipzig. The present edition for two pianos by Ignaz Friedmann was first issued in 1913 in the framework of the 12-volume Chopin edition for which the Polish pianist undertook a careful evaluation of the sources.Frederic Chopin's Piano Concertos in e minor op. 11 and f minor op. 21 were written when the composer had just barely entered his twenties.
SKU: BT.EMBZ14253
Hungarian-English-German-French.
The volume comprises works by classical and romantic masters for beginners. The chamber ensemble includes violin, viola, violoncello and piano, but if the viola is missing, its part can be played by a second violin from the version enclosed in the appendix. The string parts do not go beyond the first position. As opposed to the basso continuo part that children are less fond of, the piano assumes a soloistic role alternating with the strings. A certain part of the pieces can already be played after two years of serious studies. The colourful music containing dance movements and larger forms alike offers possibilities of common music making for string players andpianists.
SKU: BR.PB-14620
The piano reduction and the study score (,,Studien-Edition) are available at G. Henle Verlag.
ISBN 9790004211038. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his Piano Concerto no. 4 in 1805, thus contemporaneously with the opera Fidelio and the Symphonies nos. 5 and 6. The first performance took place on 22 December 1808 at the now legendary academy (subscription concert) in which Beethoven presented the two new symphonies and the Choral Fantasy op. 80 to the Viennese public for the first time. The work was first published that year by Breitkopf & Hartel. The autograph of the score is no longer extant. The principal source of the musical text on which the present edition is based is a scribal copy examined and corrected by Beethoven.