Recitative Aria And Duet Op. 44

Ed. critica di Charles S. Brauner - Riduzione per canto e pianoforte-Mosè in Egitto (1818) is the fourth of the nine opere serie that Rossini composed for Naples between 1815 and 1822. As his letters to his mother show Rossini was very proud of this opera considering it an especially fine achievement that might appeal more to posterity than to the audiences of his day. In fact it proved to be one of his most frequently performed opere serie. The present reduction for voice and piano in two volumes derives from the critical edition of the score published by Fondazione Rossini Pesaro in collaboration with Casa Ricordi by Charles S. Brauner: the edition is based mainly on the autograph score now housed in theBibliothèque nationale de France in Paris. This autograph score is complete but it is not completely autograph and many sections have offered some problems for the reconstruction of the text: the recitative in Act I and the Aria Mosè in Act II are not by Rossini the first five recitatives in Act II are not in Rossini’s hand and may or may not be by Rossini also not in Rossini’s hand is the Aria Amaltea although undoubtedly by Rossini because borrowed from his earlier opera Ciro in Babilonia. The Preface and the Critical Commentary offer for the first time some valid tools to reconstruct the entire history of the opera since the first performance in Naples (1818 1819) to the Parisian ones (1822 – 1840). In particular in the appendices are included the original Aria Faraone which composed by Michele Carafa for the first two productions of the opera in Naples in 1818 and 1819 was later replaced by the Aria Faraone Rossini himself composed in 1820 and in Appendix II the new ending of the recitative following Duetto N. 3 which Rossini composed for one of the Parisian performances after 1822. 

An Evening in the Village was composed in 1908 as no. 5 of the Ten Easy Piano Pieces. It has become one of Bartók's favorite works which the composer himself was fond of playing at recitals. As he explained in an American interview it was ''an original composition that is ... with themes of my own invention but ... the themes are in the style of the Hungarian-Transylvanian folk tunes. There are two themes. The first one is a parlando-rubato-rhythm and the second one is more in a dance-like rhythm. The second one is more or less the imitation of a peasant flute playing.'' Bartók also orchestrated the piece in 1931 as no. 1 of HungarianSketches. In 2015 we are launching a series entitled Bartók Transcriptions for Music Students to mark the 70th anniversary of the composer’s death. This involves reissuing our tried publications and publishing some further new transcriptions that fulfill in every respect the strict aesthetic demands of the earlier ones. We trust these publications will allow us to introduce still more music students to the realm of one of the great geniuses of 20th-century music.

Composer arranger and Pianist Bizet might have become the most renowned opera composer in France had he not died aged 36 just one month after the premiere of Carmen. He was admitted to the Paris Conservatoire in 1848 and excelled under the tutelage of Zimmerman Halévy and Gounod as well as winning major prizes including the Prix de Rome in 1857. After travels in Italy he settled back in Paris and while struggling to secure commissions for his operas worked as a rehearsal pianist and an arranger of works for piano. His first staged work Les pêcheurs de perles was premiered at the Théâtre Lyrique in 1863 and met with a hostile press but itimpressed Berlioz and the director of the theatre Léon Carvalho would become a firm supporter. More successful were La jolie fille de Perth (1866) his suite from the incidental music to L’Arlésienne (1872) and his Jeux d’enfants for piano duet. In Carmen the scandalous story and Bizet’s depiction of the tragic heroine both outraged and intrigued and the opera ran for 47 performances in its first year and soon spread internationally. The music was a fulfilment of his genius for characterisation that had been seen in glimpses in his earliest works and the abundance of memorable tunes and fine orchestration continues to inspire generations of singers and musicians. Based upon the 1875 published version of the opera—with revisions and restorations by Jean-Claude Hartemann and further editorial overview by David Lloyd-Jones— the edition includes both the original spoken text as well as recitatives by Ernest Guiraud and the following sections: •Scène et pantomime N° 2 (Attention! Chut! Taisons-nous!) •Original Mélodrame after Marche et Choeur des gamins N° 3 (Il y a une jolie fille) •Original version of Carmen’s entrance aria N° 5 (L’Amour est enfant de Bohême) •Original version of N° 6 Scène (Carmen! sur tes pas nous nous pressons tous!) •Chanson et mélodrame N° 9 (Tra la la la … Ce ne sont pas des chansons que je te demande) •Original version of N° 17 Duo