Orchestra. Gal H
SKU: HL.50086420
UPC: 884088105457. 5.25x7.5x2.241 inches.
SKU: HL.14008374
ISBN 9781846096150. UPC: 884088435202. 8.25x11.75x0.105 inches.
The Full Score for Peter Maxwell Davies' fourth in a series of ten string quartets commissioned by the Naxos Recording company, first performed by the Maggini Quartet on 20th August 2004 at the Chapel of the Royal Palace, Oslo, Norway, as part of the Olso Chamber Music Festival. Composer Note: The fourth Naxos quartet was written in January and February of 2004, with the intention of producing something lighter and much less fierce than its predecessor, an unpremeditated and spontaneous reaction to the illegal invasion of Iraq. I returned to the well-known Brueghel picture of children's games (1560, now in Vienna), which had been the inspiration for my sixth Strathclyde Concerto, for flute and orchestra. These illustrations liberated my musical imagination, but I feel it would limit the listener's perception to be too specific about which game relates to exactly which section of the work. Suffice it to say that there is vigorous play - leap-frog, bind the devil with a cord, truss, wrestling - alongside quieter pastimes - masks, guess whom I shall choose, courting, odds and evens. The single movement juxtaposes these activities as abruptly and intimately as they occur in Brueghel. Rather as the eye is taken into different perspectives and proportions of scale within the picture, taking liberties which would never be present in, for instance, Brunelleschi architectural drawings, so here, with a constant sequence of transformation processes, I have distorted the neat, precise implications of modal progression, expressed in the unison opening phrase (from F to B through A sharp/B flat), so that the ear is led, en route, into the sound equivalents of strange passageways and closed rooms: sicut exposition ludus. As work on the quartet progressed I became aware that I was reading into, and behind the games, adult motives and implications, concerning aggression and war, with their consequences. It was impossible to escape into innocent childhood fantasy. The nature of the F to B progression underlying the whole construction derives from a passage in the development of the first movement of Mahler's Third Symphony, and the opening of Schoenberg's Second String Quartet. However, unlike in these models, here a real - if temporary - sense of resolution occurs at the close of the quartet: as when the curtain falls on the reconciled Count and Countess in 'Figaro' one wonders how long the F/B truce will hold, and games break out again. The quartet is dedicated to Giuseppe Rebecchini, Roman architect, and friend since the nineteen-fifties.
SKU: HL.49002125
ISBN 9790001022644. UPC: 842819105954.
This symphony gives, above all, the wind instruments the opportunity of a highly articulate and characteristic play. The interesting early classical work consists of allegro, adagio, menuetto and a finale La tempesta del mare.
SKU: CA.2790105
ISBN 9790007293994. Key: B flat major. Latin.
Anyone who is familiar with Bruckner’s symphonies and great masses will probably be astonished upon hearing his Missa solemnis of 1854: can the tradition of the Viennese classics still be so clearly evident in a work by Bruckner? And yet, isn’t it also possible to hear much of Bruckner’s later style?With this edition, the earliest of Bruckner’s orchestral masses is now available as an Urtext edition. It reflects the latest scholarly research, and the complete performance material is available on sale. Compared with Bruckner’s late masses, the demands on chorus and soloists are considerably less. The horns play in just two movements and can be replaced by trombones. This rarely performed work offers many choirs an exciting alternative to the better-known masses – not only for the Bruckner anniversary in 2024! Score available separately - see item CA.2790100.
