Cello Counterpoint

SKU: ST.C360

ISBN 9790570813605.

Gavo tte en Rondeau from Violin Partita No.3 (BWV 1006).

Paper, daylight and candles were often in short supply during Bachâ??s very busy lifetime but simply to view the autograph score in his hand of the Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin is to be bound into a spell by the beauty, skill and extempore furiosity of the script. The cycle has been described as a miracle of implied harmony and rich harmonic textures, â??its freshness and maturity, its depth, its beauty, its response to all moodsâ? informing a work of humanity and genius unparalleled in all the literature for solo violin.

The present arrangement of the Gavotte en Rondeau from Partita No. 3 (BWV1006) is based on Rachmaninoffâ??s intricate harmonisation for piano. â??Ruht Wohlâ?? from the St. John Passion (BWV 245). In the final Chorus from the St. John Passion, Bach imbues the popular dance-forms of the Sarabande and Minuet with a spiritual theme of atonement and reconciliation. The three ritornelli stand like pillars in a palindromic structure whose unbroken melodic line and flowing counterpoint represent a â??timeless continuanceâ??. The original scoring is light and transparent, and transfers appropriately to a choir of cellos without the loss of any counterpoint. Prelude Op. 25 No 3 by Rachmaninoff. Throughout his career as a composer and virtuoso pianist, this Prelude was one of Rachmaninoffâ??s favourite pieces and he dedicated it to his teacher Alexander Siloti. A powerful structure is built up from a small rhythmic motif, reminiscent of Tchaikovskyâ??s representations of fate or Shostakovichâ??s of looming state power. This is contrasted with a lyrical middle section and a final phrase marked leggiero in which the music flies off into the air like a bird.

SKU: HL.49005694

ISBN 9790001061346. 9.0x11.75x0.124 inches.

SKU: BA.BA09378

ISBN 9790006539086. 32.5 x 25.5 cm inches.

A modern sequel to the music of the Romantic era.

The first movement hints at the chromatic of “Tristan”; cantilena lines convey a mournful scene. It is succeeded by a brilliant scherzo with the cryptic title “Erste fremde Szene” (First Foreign/Unknown Scene – one is invited to solve this riddle), while the third movement, with its singing quality, is related to the first.
The final movement, a “Zweite fremde Szene” (“Second Foreign/Unknown Scene”), alludes to the “last dance” tradition, with its ironic undertones and the copious use of sixths, counterpointed with tarantella rhythms.

A rewarding, striking work, equally valuable for concerts combining older compositions with new works as for contemporary music programmes.

SKU: BO.B.3664

Cuarteto San Petersburgo (The Saint Petersburg Quartet) was written between January and March 2011. It owes its name to the fact that Saint Petersburg has been a very significant city for me. I was invited there in 1988 to take part in a big contemporary music festival, but my uninterrupted bond with the city started on 2002, thanks to the negotiations of my friend and pupil Albert Barbeta. Since then, I have constantly travelled there in order to record a considerable part of my repertoire: seventeen pieces. In addition to the concerts we went to, I took the opportunity during my trips to visit the well-known conservatoire where so many great personalities from the world of music composition once taught, and the place that launched the most important violin school in the whole of Russia: the school of Leopoldo Auer. Spending a long time in Auer's classroom writing my concert for violin and orchestra was an unforgettable experience for me. His large portrait motivated me even further.

Cuartet o San Petersburgo evokes many of the most cherished and moving moments that I have had in this city. It is structured in four movements. The first one, Allegretto-Allegro, opens with an introduction that sets forth the two main themes, amid a soft and elastic atmosphere. The Allegro starts vigorously and in it we find changes in the tempo and moments of mystery, as well as certain seclusion, returning then to the emphatic theme where the counterpoint finds its place. The movement ends placidly.

The Scherzo-marcato that follows is marked by a persistent rhythm of triplets that carries on from beginning to end. The tempo does not change, but brief and decided themes are introduced, as well as passages of counterpoint. Brief and dissonant chords are heard throughout the movement, which ends vigorously.

The third movement, Ut, is a very special one. For a while already I had been playing with the idea of writing a movement that was to have the tonality C as a leitmotiv. This one is made up by two slow and static parts. In the first one, the first violin plays pizzicatti-glissandi. In the second, the first violin and particularly the violoncello settle on C while the other two instruments produce descending chromatic harmonies.

Final ly, the Introduccion-Presto (the Introduction-Presto). It starts with some bucolic passages which remind us of the introduction to the first movement. A fast and energetic Presto suddenly erupts. A kind of moto perpetuo which alternates with two expressive passages and, towards the end, a viola and violoncello tremolo, all of great mystery and expectation, make way for a resounding finale marcato.

SKU: FV.FUE-10281

ISBN 9790501825813.

It consists of three movements. The first movement is very expressive and consists of a theme uttered by the cello, almost cadenza.It is taken successively by the other three instruments and is decorated with a counterpoint at each appearance.

SKU: BT.WH31498

ISBN 9788759824603. English.

String Quartet No.4 was composed by Hans Abrahamsen in 2012. Commissioned by Westdeutscher Rundfunk and Wigmore Hall For the Arditti Quartet. Programme note: The basic idea for my Fourth String Quartet was very clear to me: It should be quiet and soft music or to put it in a german term: hoch im Himmel gesungen ... (”High singing in heaven…”). Each of the four movements has a different scordatura/pitch. The first movement begins like my work ”Schnee” sky-high with an airy and soft melody by the first violin. The second movement is fast and ”movement and joy”-like. It consists of two duets and a reverse style counterpoint. While the sections were progressively longerin the first movement they are getting shorter and shorter in the second. ”Dark, heavy and earthy” is the third movement and its pizzicato recalls big black raindrops falling to the ground. It is the dark and grainy counterpart to the first movement whereas the fourth movement corresponds to the second. The fourth movement was planned as a dark and heavy counterpart but it turned out to be like ”babbling” music of a child. My Fourth String Quartet has become in its way a serene and cool piece. So the Quartet has been finished luckyly after twenty years it was already in 1990 that I was commissioned by Wittener Tage für Neue Musik to write the piece for Arditti Quartet. Hans Abrahamsen.