Symphony No. 4 - an Organ Symphony (2008) by Poul Ruders. Organ part & reduced score: WH31186C Orch. parts are available on hire: hire@ewh.dk Preface / Programme Note When introducing a large-scale symphonic work not only as a symphony but as an organ symphony it would be impossible not to think of and perhaps compare it with Camille Saint-Saëns’s famous SYMPHONY NO. 3 popularly known as the Organ Symphony. Well that is a risk I am prepared to take – and live with the consequences.Saint-Saëns however listed his work as a symphony avec/with organ. Theorgan only appears in two out of the four sections of thepiece. In my symphony the instrument plays a far more significant part and is featured in all four movements. But it is not a concerto for organ and orchestra rather a symphony with organo obligato - a symphony with an organ part of a soloistic nature. So an Organ Symphony it is. The first movement PRELUDE is exactly that: a foreplay to what is in store for the rest of the symphony. It is slow (very slow!) and predominantly hushed: the organ and the orchestra wake up side-by-side getting to know one another.The second movement CORTÈGE is a slowly moving processional and it evokes extreme solemnity and austerity. Later on the music takes flight and the atmosphere lightens considerably a far more playful music emerging.This leads to the third movement ETUDE an exercise in instrumental virtuosity and technical challenge.The fourth and last movement is called CHACONNE but I could just as well have named it passacaglia (the definition of those two terms seems to blur even among the learned). Bearing in mind the last movement of Johannes Brahms´s SYMPHONY NO.4 which is universally agreed on as being a passacaglia I chose to avoid the Wrath of the Gods and opted for
SKU: HL.14028045
ISBN 9788759872574. UPC: 884088434403. 11.75x16.5x0.475 inches.
A second Symphony by Ruders, commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress for the New York City based chamber orchestra, Riverside Symphony. The piece is subtitled Symphony And Transformation to express the formal symphonic nature of a piece that is otherwise in a state of constant musical and textural transformation.
SKU: HL.14028017
ISBN 9788759805619.
The full score of Ruders' first Symphony, subtitled Himmelhoch jauchzend - zum Tode betrubt. Written for large orchestra.
SKU: HL.14042346
ISBN 9788759826171. 12.0x16.5x0.598 inches. English.
Symphony No. 5 by Poul Ruders .Commissioned by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestrafor World Premiere on January 9, 2015.
SKU: HL.14027981
ISBN 9788759808368. English.
'Dramaphonia' for piano solo and 11 instruments forms the first part of a trilogy of solo-concertos, the remaining two being one for percussion and smaller symphony orchestra ('Monodrama') and the last ('Polydrama') for violoncello and full orchestra. All three pieces are in one movement each and may be performed together, thus presenting a vast concerto grosso of the duration of one hour and a half. Each concerto, however, stands by itself, offering its own story: having employed the word drama in all three pieces, I naturally want to imply that something is going on, a series of hidden events created by each listener's own inner theatre which enables him to stage his own, personal associations, and in the case of 'Dramaphonia', the compositorical tension alters between action and frozen panoramas. In the percussion concerto, the rhythmical progression is being constantly intensified, whereas the metric proportions of Dramaphonia tighten and loosen, like a magnifying glass being wielded in and out of focus. 'Dramaphonia' is commissioned and dedicated to LONTANO and Poul Rosenbaum.
SKU: HL.14067520
SKU: HL.14075841
SKU: HL.233151
ISBN 9788759886427. 10.0x14.5 inches. English.
Piano solo part for Paganini Variations - Piano Concerto No.3 by Poul Ruders (2014). Score available: WH32201 Programme note: In 1999 my friend, American guitar virtuoso David Starobin, wanted me to write a concerto for guitar and orchestra. It quickly dawned on me, that this commission presented a golden opportunity to contribute to the time-honoured tradition of composing a series of variations on Nicolo Paganini's famous 24th Caprice for violin solo, a work which itself is a set of variations. The 16 bar (with the first 4 bars repeated) theme is not particularly sophisticated or intricate, but its inherent simplicity and logic just grow on you, almost to the point ofdistraction - and the secret behind it being hauled through the wringer by composers as disparate as Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninoff and Lutoslawski is perhaps found in its - what I'll call, with a quick nervous look over my shoulder: brilliant banality. You can do anything with that tune, it'll always be recognizable and just there, however much you maul it. The piece (subtitled Guitar Concerto no 2) was written pretty quickly, premiered and subsequently recorded for Bridge Records with David and the Odense Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jan Wagner, and everybody was happy. But the story didn't end there, and it must be the ultimate proof of the durability of the theme, not to mention the flexibility and far-sightedness of David Starobin , when he 14 years later suggested why not transcribe the solo part for piano?. The idea appealed to me immediately. One thing was clear from the beginning: the new version could in no way sound like a transcription. My aim was to end up with a solo-part sounding like were it the one-and-only, the real thing, if you like. The orchestral score remains exactly the same in both cases. Both versions, the two Paganini Variations, are comparable to a set of twins, not quite identical, but almost. And both each others's equal. Poul Ruders.
