A Nottingham Festival

SKU: BT.AMP-336-140

9x12 inches. English-German-French-Dutch.

This celebratory work, which Philip Sparke wrote for the 20th anniversary of the Nottingham Concert Band, starts with a hymn-like theme played as a fanfare in the brass. With a change of mood from ‘solemn’ to ‘merry’ and back to ‘majestic’, together with an unusual orchestration, in which may different instruments feature and in which at points the entire wind orchestra shimmers in tutti passages, A Nottingham Festival is a real pleasure for musicians and public alike.

Dit feestelijke werk schreef Philip Sparke in opdracht van de Nottingham Concert Band, ter gelegenheid van het twintigjarig jubileum van het orkest. Een uitdagend concertwerk met vele sfeerwisselingen, waaraan uw muzikanten en publiekveel aardigheid zullen beleven!

Dieses festliche Werk, das Philip Sparke zum 20-jährigen Jubiläum der Nottingham Concert Band schreib, beginnt mit einem hymnenartigen Motiv zu Fanfaren im Blechregister. Stimmungswechsel von feierlich zu fröhlich und zurück zu majestätisch sowie eine ausgewogene Orchestrierung, die viele verschiedene Instrumente hervorhebt und auch das gesamte Blasorchester in Tutti-Passagen glänzen lässt, machen A Nottingham Festival zu einem Genuss für Musiker und Publikum.

A Nottingham Festival débute par un motif ascendant qui contraste avec la fougueuse entrée des cuivres. Puis l’ambiance se fait sereine pour introduire une mélodie jouée par les clarinettes et accompagnée d’un motif rythmique la caisse claire. Un crescendo mène un passage puissant repris par l’orchestre entier qui réintroduit la trame initiale. Le tableau final est rehaussé par la reprise majestueuse du thème d’origine, interprété cette fois par les cuivres, où s’entrelacent les attrayantes répliques des bois. Une coda énergique met fin cette somptueuse composition qui souligne la force créatrice du compositeur.

Questo brano festivo è stato composto da Philip Sparke per il 20° anniversario di fondazione della Nottingham Concert Band. Il pezzo apre con un motivo simile a un inno. Cambiamenti di umore, dal festoso al divertito per poi tornare al maestoso, come anche un’orchestrazione bilanciata che riesce a mettere in risalto molti strumenti come anche l’organico nei passaggi in tutti, fanno di A Nottingham Festival un vero piacere musicale per esecutori e pubblico.

SKU: BT.YE0001

It was a chance visit to a second hand bookshop in Nottingham that set me on the trail of Rossini's now well-known Duetto for cello and double bass. But the story begins earlier than that. In the 1960s I was studying the double bass at the Royal College of Music with Adrian Beers, who was at that time principal of the English Chamber Orchestra, on the front desk of the Philharmonia Orchestra, and a member of the Melos Ensemble of London (then one of the leading ensembles of the world). I was working on the 'Dragonetti Concerto', as most young players do, and I wanted to find out a bit about it. My teacher said he thought the autograph manuscript might be in the British Library,which was all the encouragement I needed to secure a pass to the Reading Room so I could go and see for myself.

There, sure enough, I found a large collection of Dragonetti's autograph manuscripts, together with other bound volumes relating to his life. The papers had been lovingly collated and annotated by Vincent Novello, one of Dragonetti's closest friends, then deposited in the library before his departure to Italy in 1848, two years after Dragonetti's death. One of the volumes included a lot of letters about various engagements and music festivals, copies of orders for strings Dragonetti wanted from Italy, details about paintings he wanted to buy, and numerous invitations to private functions. The manuscript of the 'Dragonetti Concerto', of course, wasn't among the papers â?? we now know it to have been written by Edouard Nanny a century or so later.

One name that came up regularly in the documents was that of Sir George Smart. Smart had been a violinist in Salomon's orchestra and had played for Haydn at his London concerts in the 1790s. As a child he had learnt much about music from his father, who had in turn been present at many of Handel's rehearsals when he was preparing some of his major works for the first time. Smart was also a fine keyboard player, becoming organist of the Chapel Royal in 1822. As a conductor.