Three Characteristic Pieces For Organ

Intrata No 2 was found in a small manuscript book in the library of the Royal College of Music with a dedicated to Sir Walter Adcock on his 80th birthday 29 December 1941. It is a piece that deserves to be included in Howells’s oeuvre.Dated 1969 Flourish for a Bidding was written for the Royal College of Music Centenary Fund was auctioned and bought by Novello & Company. Flourish has a stylistic characteristics in common with Rhapsody No 4 and the Epilogue 1974. St Louis Comes to Clifton was a private publication entitled ‘A Garland for DGAF’ and given to the late Douglas Fox a distinguished one-armed Organist who was Director of Music at Clifton.Herbert Howells is a giantof 20th century Anglican church music the remainder of whose oeuvre is in the process of gaining new appreciation. He left a body of distinguished Organ music of which these three works are interesting examples.

Par ZELENSKI WLADYSLAW. Wladyslaw Zelenski had the Six Character Pieces for piano, op. 17 ready around 1871, although it is quite possible that he composed them earlier, even in 1864. Such is indicated by the opus number. At that time he was giving opus numbers to works in chronological order of composition. This set is dedicated to Auguste Auspitz-Kolár, a pianist whom Zelenski could have met on one of his trips to Vienna. The composer published these works in 1872, with Gotthard of Vienna, in two books under the common title Sechs Charakterstücke. The present edition is based on Ludwig Doblinger?s Viennese edition (cat. no. 1221 comprises the Praeludium, Promenade and Tanz, cat. no. 1222 the Canon, Scherzo and Abschied). The compositions collected in Zelenski?s opus 17 have been unjustly forgotten. Their undeniable qualities include advanced harmonies and expressive melodic writing, as well as a wide range of textural means and composition techniques. Quite ?densely? written, these miniatures may prove challenging, but the right fingering eliminates many difficulties of performance. The second book of Wladyslaw Zelenski?s Six Character Pieces contains three miniatures: Canon, Scherzo and Farewell. They manifest characteristic features of the composer?s style, such as the use of counterpoint and a rich, organ-like texture. The Canon, with its emotional charge and build-up of tension, brings to mind miniatures from the brilliant piano cycles of Robert Schumann. A very simple phrase is imitated canonically between the top voice and the two bottom voices, passing through different keys. A touch of finesse is added by the triplet figuration in the middle plan. The next miniature is a classic Scherzo in ABA form. The outer sections, with an imitated theme, are in G minor. With its rather ominous, perhaps somewhat tragic, character, it contrasts with the middle section, Un poco più tranquillo, in the parallel key of G major, which clearly represents a more luminous, dance-like episode in this set of works. The title Farewell given to the last piece in opus 17 may stir associations with Ludwig van Beethoven?s only programme sonata, Les Adieux. This miniature is far more expansive and texturally richer than the other works in this set. The virtuosic elements are of the highest order, not overwhelming the composition, but emphasising its powerful emotional charge. Each of these miniatures can function as a separate work, but when played as two three-part cycles they fall into logical wholes, in which the climax is reached in the last, most elaborate piece. Yet a performance of all six works from both books, so the whole of Zelenski?s opus 17, allows us to discern an even larger cyclical form, developed in an equally deliberate way. - Anna Miernik/ Répertoire / Piano

Anton Bruckner (1824-1896). Par BRUCKNER ANTON / DOSS THOMAS (Arr.). Anton Bruckner (b. 4.9.1824, Ansfelden, d. 11.10.1896, Vienna) didn?t have it easy. Throughout his life, the Austrian composer was plagued by self-doubt. Anton Bruckner came from a simple, rural background. After the death of his father, he was accepted as a choirboy at the monastery of Sankt Florian in 1837. After several years as a school assistant and his own organ and piano studies, he first worked as organist in St. Florian, then from 1855 as cathedral organist in Linz. Introduced to music theory and instrumentation by Simon Sechter and Otto Kitzler, he discovered Richard Wagner as an artistic role model, whom he admired throughout his life and also visited several times in Bayreuth. In 1868 Anton Bruckner became professor of basso continuo, counterpoint and organ at the Vienna Conservatory; ten years later court organist; and in 1891 finally honorary doctor of the University of Vienna. He was considered an important organ virtuoso of his era, but had to wait a long time for recognition as a composer. It was not until Symphony No.7 in E major, composed between 1881 and 1883, with the famous Adagio written under the effects of Wagner's death, that he achieved the recognition he had hoped for, even if he was reluctant to accept it given his inclination towards scepticism and self-criticism. Anton Bruckner was a loner who did not want to follow a particular school or doctrine. He composed numerous sacred vocal works, such as his three masses, the Missa Solemnis in B flat minor (1854), the Te Deum (1881-84) and numerous motets. As a symphonic composer, he wrote a total of nine symphonies and many symphonic studies from 1863 onwards, tending to revise completed versions several times over. Bruckner's orchestral works were long considered unplayable, but in fact were merely exceptionally bold for the tonal language of their time, uniting traditions from Beethoven through Wagner to folk music, on the threshold between late Romanticism and Modernism. Hymns for four-part mixed choir a cappella (1846, St. Florian) No. 1 in E flat major (WAB 41/3): Quite Slow No. 2 in C major (WAB 41/4): Andante No. 3 in B flat major (WAB 41/1): Slow No. 4 in A flat major (WAB 41/2): Slow Hymn for five-part (2 S, A, T, B) mixed choir and organ No. 5 in D major: Solemnly They are simple works, completely subordinate to their liturgical use, which nevertheless already show numerous characteristics of personal expression. These small pieces were able to stand up to the harsh scrutiny of the mature master: in 1888, Bruckner subjected them to a revision in which he made only minor corrections. / Date parution : 2023-08-12/ Répertoire / Concert Band/Harmonie