SKU: HL.50601620
SKU: PR.11440558S
UPC: 680160008971.
Conce rto da Camera II is a work for six instruments which may be further grouped into three separate entities - clarinet, string quartet, piano. In this combination, chosen by the work's commissioning organizations (the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in conjunction with Mount Holyoke College), lies the work's first challenge. While pairings of any two of these three sound types abound in the concert literature, the three together form a far less common soundscape. The main difficulty appears in the necessity to reconcile the potential of both the clarinet and the piano of acting in a soloistic capacity when pitted against the string quartet. Indeed, the three movements of the Concerto deal with this problem in various ways, with the balance of power between the six instruments' potential for unity and contrast, solo and ensemble playing, continually shifting and changing. Yet another, more delicate, balance of power is at play here, namely, the relationship between the external, foreground level of the piece and a subtler background level. What, at first, appear like small, gentle melodic strands, mere echoes or residues of the main events, gradually assume an inner life of their own. Never actually taking over yet always there, a salient, if quiet, factor within the work's compositional fabric and evolving organism. Though each movement includes numerous tempo fluctuations, the overall thrust of the work clearly suggests a fast-slow-fast framework, with the last movement being a loosely structured, occasionally tempestuous Rondo.
SKU: PR.114405580
UPC: 680160008964.
SKU: PR.41641301L
UPC: 680160619795.
Under the Sun's Gaze as a title for a musical composition conjures up many possibilities. It is, in fact, an imagined line from an unwritten poem, invented with the idea of capturing something of the visual aura the sounds and energy of this work invoke in its composer' mind. An omnipotent presence in all of nature, a source of life yet also capable of its destruction, the sun affects the light and dark in our physical existence as it defines the daily and seasonal life. The music of this work, in three interlocking parts, takes turns being exuberant, caressing, scorching, receding, hazy, lazy, blazing, dissolving into darkness, blinding in its intensity. Subtitled Concerto da Camera III, this work is written for what has become known as the standard Pierrot instrumentation of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano plus percussion. The difference here is that the winds are doubled - the two flutists alternating with piccolo and alto flute and both clarinetists also doubling on bass clarinets. The ninth member of the ensemble, a soprano saxophone, appears well into the piece, its lyrical, plaintively expressive quality dominating the musical terrain for a while. While occasionally joining the others for some tutti outbursts, it maintains its position as something of a guest throughout. Of the various thematic ideas that populate this work, a six-note descending line played by the clarinet appearing right at the work's opening then arching back up reveals itself, as the music unfolds, to be the principal melodic building block of Under the Sun's Gaze. Its various transformations include the plaintive soprano saxophone melody appearing in the middle section. Just under 20 minutes in length, the work in its totality can be heard as being in a loose arch form, its ending receding into a distant darkening horizon which carries in it the seed of the new dawn that lies beyond. Under the Sun's Gaze was commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress for the San Francisco Contemporary Players, David Milnes, conductor.
SKU: PR.416413010
UPC: 680160605682.
SKU: FP.FHP06
ISBN 9790570504053.
The heartachingly beautiful Tallis Remembered is a timeless little piece composed by outstanding British composer Peter Hope for the 2013 William Alwyn Festival, where it featured a violin instead of the clarinet. The work was inspired by Wendy Cope’s wistful poem ‘Tallis’s Canon’ and is effectively a set of through-composed variations on Tallis’s well-known tune. A recording of the work can be heard on the CD 'Windblown: Sonatas for Wind Instruments by Peter Hope'. It has been regularly featured on Radio 3.Hope has written and arranged for many internationally known names, including Jose Carreras and Kiri te Kanawa, and other composers including John Williams and James Horner. His original compositions include the Suite: Ring of Kerry (which won an Ivor Novello Award in 1968/9), a Trumpet Concerto, performed by Elgar Howarth, a Concertino for bassoon and orchestra, recorded by Graham Salvage with the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, and a Recorder Concerto, recorded by John Turner with the Manchester Camerata Ensemble. His Bramall Hall Dances, for recorder and guitar/piano are published by Forsyth Brothers Ltd. and have become a standard repertoire work for the recorder.
SKU: PR.466000660
UPC: 680160599226. 9 x 12 inches.
SKU: PR.46600066L
UPC: 680160599233. 11 x 17 inches.