SKU: FG.55011-372-5
ISBN 9790550113725.
Imag es 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.STACLI215
SKU: UM.12499
ISBN 9790224412499. A4 inches.
SKU: ST.C215
ISBN 9790570812158.
SKU: PR.UE018469
UPC: 680160521968.
SKU: SU.50027580
Published by Seesaw Music.
SKU: DZ.DZ-1358
ISBN 9782896552573.
SKU: HL.35024458
UPC: 884088662158. 8.5x11 inches.
SKU: BT.CMP-0164-97-040
In A Day at the Museum the renowned composer James Curnowpresents four contrasting types of art that will be found in an artexhibition. The work is divided into five movements, Promenade (walking between exhibits), Landscape (Van Gough and Rubens), Portrait (Manet), Seascapes (Monet) and Sculpture. Take a walk through the world’s greatest museum and let your mind recall the pleasure of seeing works by the great masters of the art world. Peut-on concevoir la vie sans la beauté des arts ? Des siècles de paysages sublimés, de portraits exquis et de sculptures délicates signés par de grands maîtres sont mis en musique dans cette composition de James Curnow. Une promenade travers les salles d’un musée la rencontre des Beaux-Arts.
SKU: PR.UE018468
UPC: 680160521951.
SKU: BT.FORFAW01
SKU: BT.CMP-0164-97-010
SKU: CL.029-1555-01
A very relaxing and appealing concert band piece for younger concert bands. Full of lush scoring, this piece give everyone in the band a change to shine. Very accessible and sounds great!
SKU: HL.49018422
ISBN 9790220132391. UPC: 884088614515. 8.25x11.75x0.232 inches.
Maxwell Davies' 'Das Rauschende der Farbe' (The Sound of Colour) is a reflection on the life and work of the German artist Paula Modersohn-Becker who died aged 31 in 1907. Maxwell Davies first got to know the artist's work whilst on a school exchange in Hamburg in 1951 and the composer has since written that Modersohn-Becker's work has influenced the way that he views the relationship between art and the landscape in which it is produced. This is a particularly significant statement for a composer whose music is often a response to the land and seascape of his adopted home in the Orkney Isles. Commissioned by the Bremer Philharmoniker and first performed by them in 2007, the 30 minute orchestral work in three movements is one of the key works by Maxwell Davies in recent years.
