SKU: IS.FVC4457EM
ISBN 9790365044573.
August Louis Baeyens received his musical training at the Royal Flemish Music Conservatory in Antwerp, studying solfège, viola, and harmony. As a composer, Baeyens developed chiefly through the study of composers such as Debussy, Wagner and Strauss; this interest gave him the reputation of a revolutionary within the confines of the very traditionalist conservatory. However, this was not where Baeyens’ exploration of musical language was to end. The 1956 Piranesi Suite for flute and cello, written three decades after Baeyens’ graduation from the Flemish Conservatory, marks an intriguing phase of his composition. Baeyens tended towards older forms - the Suite, for example, is a five-movement work, though each movement is drawn through a more modern glass; it’s hardly usual to hear a Sinfonia, Toccata, Moto Perpetuo, Aria, and Corrente together. The resemblance towards older forms breaks down as the music is further examined; the Sinfonia is full of transposed, repetitive melodies that play off each other with sly rhythmic twists (much in the manner of Stravinsky), the Toccata is a powerful solo cello showpiece, and the Aria is a delicate flute melody winding above bitonal cello pizzicato. The final Corrente, belying its name, brings the piece to a close with an accelerating back-and-forth of melody and accompaniment.
SKU: ST.H438
ISBN 9790220219054.
Rhian Samuel is a co-editor of the Grove Dictionary of Women Composers and herself a composer of highly acclaimed instrumental and vocal works, including Daughter's Letters, premiered in 1996 by Sinfonia 21. She wrote Dream-Images in memory of her teacher, Andrew Byrne. Two interludes separate the three 'images', each of which is rhapsodic in mood. The last, Weeping Trellises, refers to the gentle, drooping blooms of the wisteria plant, and, emotionally, to feelings of inevitability and loss. Dream-Images was first performed by Martin Roscoe at the Machynlleth Festival in August 1997.
SKU: HL.14022821
ISBN 9788759854280. 8.25x11.75x0.136 inches. English.
Carl Nielsen is doubtlessly one of Denmark's most important and popular composers. This is no more evident than in his 1916 work for Piano Solo, Chaconne Op.32, which followed a seventeen-year gap in his compositions for that instrument. It is a decidedly dynamic work, in constant motion from the moment the simple opening theme begins through the crescendo and to the winding down and end of this piece. The twenty variations that form the core of this piece themselves have a varied range, sometimes comparatively easy, showing Bach's influence, other times he uses highly complex contrasts. This is a fine example of Nielsen's work and uses mood and texture to great effect making it ideal for concert or recital performance whilst the variations make it a clever training manual.
