Shenandoah: Orchestra: Score

Bob Krogstad's skilled writing for strings is unmatched in its creativity and effectiveness. This sensitive setting of the beloved American folk tune is filled with Bob's artistic melodic treatment harmonic freshness and superborchestration. A beautiful program piece that will highlight any concert or festival perfromance. Dur: 3:30

Concerto giocondo e severo (Cheerful and Serious Concerto) Op. 132 for Orchestra by Vagn Holmobe (1977).   Programme note Concerto giocondo e severo was composed in 1977 and first performed in the following year on  18th April by the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra during a vist to Gothenburg with Jorma Panula conducting. This work is scored for a much larger orchestra than the other conertos (including a large percussion section) but the orchestration is relatively transparent. It is only occasionally that everybody is on the pitch at the same time. The concerto is in onemovement but is divided into a succession of different tempi and sections that contrast with each other in character. A fortissimo chord from the whole orchestra starts the the slow somewhat tentative introduction. But another fortissimo outbreak is required before strings and the woodwinds together prononunce the beginning of the first rapid section. Knud Ketting

o.Op. 82 TrV 133- We are grateful to the University of Edinburgh Library Centre for Research Collections for providing us with access to a manuscript of this work. At shelf-mark Mus.M.645 is a set of parts in the hand of an unknown copyist annotated by John Parr (the bassoonist of Sheffield) who also wrote a full score and second copies of the bassoon and bass parts. The score is dated 1930 and the bassoon part 1934. It is here entitled merely 'duet for flute and bassoon with orchestra' and ascribed to R. Strauss.   We are also grateful for advice from Dr Christian Wolf of the Richard-Strauss-Institut in Munich whohave access to a copy of  'der Zweikampf' made by Cl. Schubert but the Richard-Strauss-Archiv in Garmisch-Partenkirchen will not permit them to make a complete copy for us but has permitted sample pages to be copied confirming the identity of the music. They also affirm the considerable doubt as to Richard Strauss being the composer however no other composer has been suggested in his stead.  In the Strauss bibliography a date of composition of 1884 is given when he was twenty years old.   We would also like to acknowledge with thanks the help of Drs Jenny Nex and Lance Whitehead of Edinburgh in deciphering the manuscript and advising on the piano reduction.   In editing the work we have corrected a few evident errors and made the dynamics consistent. There was no given tempo indication in some of the parts but Parr added 'allegro moderato' which is also the tempo indication in the Munich manuscript.  He also suggested the bass pizzicato in most of the polacca but perhaps this was intended only for the double bass should one be present. There are some discrepancies between the Edinburgh score and parts which we have resolved somewhat arbitrarily on musical grounds.  The differences between the Munich and Edinburgh versions are mostly small as far as we can discern; the

Johann Strauss the Younger (1825 - 1899) was a Viennese composer best known for his operettas and dance music especially his waltzes polkas and quadrilles. By the time his father died in 1849 he was already well-established as a renowned composer in his own right. The Annen Polka (Op. 117) was written for St Anne’s Festival in 1852 - an important public holiday in Vienna. Somewhat confusingly Struass Snr had also written a Polka for the same festival ten years earlier which is known by the same title. Struass Jnr’s Annen Polka has been arranged for Piano andschool/amateur Orchestra by Frank Naylor.

Marking the first publication of an early work for chamber orchestra this study score presents Ralph Vaughan Williams's The Solent composed in 1903. The main theme from this work will be recognisable to many listeners as it later found its way into both the Sea Symphony and the Ninth Symphony albeit in a somewhat altered form. This duplication has intrigued many Vaughan Williams' scholars as has the Philip Marston quotation that prefaces the scores: 'Passion and sorrow in the deep sea's voice A mighty mystery saddening all the wind?'.The score has been edited by James Francis Brown and includes an introduction by theeditor.

E Minor Op. 64. Par MENDELSSOHN-BARTHOLDY FELIX. Mendelssohn?s Violin Concerto op. 64, is a key work of the 19th century, adhering to the classical style of Beethoven while pointing the way to the romantic ethos of Brahms. It has long been known that Mendelssohn performed the work with three soloists in succession: Ferdinand David, who worked closely with the composer during its composition and played it at the premiere - the ?child prodigy? Joseph Joachim - and Hubert Leonard, a young Belgian virtuoso about whom little is known. As proof sheets for the Violin Concerto in E minor were long considered lost, it could be described as somewhat of a sensation when proofs for the solo violin part resurfaced together with a letter from Mendelssohn to Leonard. The letter informs us that the composer invited Leonard to his home in Frankfurt in order to make his acquaintance. It was already known that Mendelssohn had given proof sheets to David - now we know that he also gave some to Leonard. The recently discovered proofs reveal how Leonard played the concerto with Mendelssohn on that memorable evening in February 1845. That the young violinist made a positive impression on the composer is confirmed in the latter?s correspondence following their joint performance. The editor of this revised edition of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Clive Brown, is an acknowledged expert on Romantic performance practice. This study score complements the full score and orchestral parts (BA 9099), the piano reduction of the 1844 version (BA 9099-92), the piano reduction of the 1845 version (BA 9099-90), as well as the brochure ?Performance Practices in the Violin Concerto op. 64 and Chamber Music for Strings of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy? (BA 9060)./ Répertoire / Violon et Orchestre

The composer writes:Pilgrim was inspired it will be no surprise to learn by reading Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress - Vaughan Williams's great opera on the subject had fascinated me from its first performance yet it was a long time before I caught up with this essential item in any well-stocked library of English classics. It made a great impression not least because of its theme of a journey of self-discovery and a rediscovery or renewal of faith. These are ideas which have a strong interest for me not in religious terms but in their application to every aspect of human life (including great journeys) and this piece reflects my response in musical terms to this concern. The tempo of the whole piece which lasts about 18 minutes is basically slow. There are two quick episodes but these act somewhat like the trio sections of a classical scherzo save that the tempo relationships are inverted (the classical trios would have been slower not quicker) and the canvas is much larger being that of a single substantial slow movement. The form of the whole is perhaps fantasia-like rather than having any relationship to classical forms such as sonata or rondo - some motifs and themes are varied as the work develops and the opening chords are of primary importance throughout the work. There has been no attempt to convey any pictorial elements deriving from Bunyan's great book. There is however one feature which upon completion of the score struck me with some force which is that almost all the thematic material is essentially striving upwards - there is a constant upward movement (sometimes over a lengthy period) throughout the work. Pilgrim was commissioned by the Luton Music Club for the Raphael Ensemble with funds provided by the Eastern Arts Board and Bedfordshire County Council and is dedicated to the Luton Music Club. The first performance was given in Luton on February 10th 1997 and followed as part of a joint scheme by performances in the same week at the Music Clubs of Bedford and Leighton Buzzard.