Par BARTOK BELA. Like so many famous virtuosic works, Bartók’s Sonata for Solo Violin was said, by its commissioner, Yehudi Menuhin, at first sight, to be unplayable! Of course, Menuhin soon changed his opinion, later describing the work as the most important composition for solo violin since Bach. The original work used the full array of violin techniques such as stopped harmonics, left-hand pizz…

In 1887 Antonin Dvorak revised several of the works he had composed in the 1860s and 1870s, most of which he then published for the first time. In this context he asked the music critic Ludevit Prochazka to return a manuscript copy of the Piano Quintet in A major op. 5 (B 28), composed 15 years earlier. But after thoroughly revising the work he declined to publish it - instead, he wrote a new pian…

In E-flat major Op.102. Par SAINT-SAENS CAMILLE. The second half of the 19th century represented something of a ?Golden Age? of the violin sonata in France: influential violin sonatas such as those by Franck, Fauré and Saint-Saëns were among the successful works of this genre, inspiring many further compositions. Saint-Saëns? Violin Sonata No.2 was written in 1896 during a stay of several months b…

Par TCHAIKOVSKI PIOTR ILITCH / JONES NATHAN (Arr.). Tchaikovsky composed his twelve character pieces for piano, The Seasons, while he was writing his popular ballet, Swan Lake. Each piece in The Seasons depicts a different month of the year in Russia. The original publication of September: The Hunt included an epigraph at the start of the piece-a small poem by Alexander Pushkin. This energetic arr…

Opera in three acts. Par HAENDEL GEORG FRIEDRICH. ; Almira, Handel's first opera, was well received when premiered in 1705 at the Theater am Gänsemarkt in Hamburg. The director was Reinhard Keiser, who, remarkably, had himself already set Friedrich Christian Feustking's text to music. The role of Fernando was sung by Johann Mattheson. The translation used by Handel leaves several Italian arias in …

Par SCHUBERT FRANZ. Octet in F major Op. post. 166 D 803 for Clarinet (in B-flat), Bassoon, Horn, Violin (2), Viola, Violincello, Double Bass “I have done little new by way of lieder. In compensation I have tried my hand at several instrumental things, for I have composed two quartets for Violins, Viola and Violincello [A minor, D 804; D minor, D 810] and an octet [F major, D 803] and will write y…

To provide greater availability for a work of such importance, the original publishers secured from Gershwin a solo piano version wherein the orchestral parts are fused together with the solo piano part (PS0047). Due to concerns that the composer's arrangement presented too many technical demands to pianists not possessing the requisite technique, a modified arrangement was delicately solicited fr…

Par BARTOK BELA. This version of Béla Bartók’s “Allegro Barbaro” is the latest of several challenging arrangements for guitar of twentieth century masterpieces. The piece was written by Bartók as a reply to a critic who had accused him of “musical barbarity” and it pulls no punches in its opposition to the late romantic musical styles of the time (1911). Huge technical and musical challenges have …

Version I/II. Par EOTVOS PETER. 'I often played Berio’s Erdenklavier in my childhood, which is why I wrote this short epigram to take leave of the Maestro and Friend who is playing on a Himmelklavier now. From 1979 I worked many times with Berio in IRCAM and in several festivals in Italy which were led by Berio. I regularly conduct all his symphonic and ensemble pieces'. I remember our last cigar…

Par GARCIA JOSE MAURICIO NUNES. Garcia, born in 1767 in Rio de Janeiro, and priest and music director at the cathedral there, is still hardly known. Among his spiritual works are four settings of the Mass for the Dead. The present „Missa dos Defunktos“ was commissioned by the Portuguese King Dom Joao VI in the memory of Queen Maria I, who died in 1816. The composition, in the key of D minor, shows…