SKU: BT.EMBZ12699

English-German.

After touring Europe from Lisbon to St. Petersburg in the 1840s, Ferenc Liszt settled in Weimar. He abandoned his position as a celebrated virtuoso and took up the post of court Kapellmeister there. Ballade No. 2 is also from the output of this period. Composed together with the Sonata in B Minor and in the same key, to the discerning listener this work reveals the influence of Schubert and Chopin. Intriguingly, the work seems to have progressed along the same path as the composer himself: initially, it concluded with a sensational and thunderous finale, while the definitive version ends with quiet lyricism. This duality can easily be studied in this edition, which includes bothversions. This revised (2018) edition is raised to the level of academic thoroughness by a new editor s preface, a facsimile, and full critical notes.

SKU: PR.510076960

1. Choral: An improbably superimposing of Beethoven and Brahms. At the end of the first performance of the latter's 1st Symphony, someone asked the composer: Don't you find that your main theme remin ds one of the Ode to Joy? To which he retorted: Even an idiot would have noticed it! 2. Fugue: in the last exposition, the subject of Fugue I from volume 1 of Bach's Well-Tempered Keyboard is super imposed on the theme from Mozart's so-called easy sonata. 3. Passion: In his Violin Concerto, Mendelssohn, to whom we owe the rediscovery of Bach's Passions, seems to have borrowed a theme from a lost Passion. 4. Recitativo: Tribute to Franck's tribute to Bach in his Sonata for violin and piano. 5. Invention: A private revenge, after a bitter failure. Debussy's Toccata was on the compulsory list for the Conservatory piano class entrance exam. 6. Arpeggione: In which the listener realizes the similarity in the introduction to Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and Arpeggione Sonata. 7. Sarabande: The most iconoclastic, for Bach's 5th Cello Suite is already suffused with harmony. There might be an evocatioin of a Brahms-like overarching structure, though... 8. Variation: The slowest variation ever written on Paganini's 24th Caprice. 9. Scene: Schumann's Reverie as a Prelude. 10. Finale: In order to capture the elusive harmony of the Finale of Chopin's Sonate Funebre. 11. Fugue on Au clair de la lune: Our greatest nursery rhymes, fugue fitted and choralized. 12. Fugue de Noel (Christmas fugue): Quite appropriate. 13. Fugue on J'ai du bon tabac: Prohibited counterpoint. 14. Fugue on La Marseillaise: Franco-German reconciliation. 15. Pedal - Exercitium: Realization and conclusion of Bach's organ pedal exercies.

SKU: CF.SAS9

ISBN 9781491162880. UPC: 680160921638. Key: D minor.

Despite an impressive body of work, little is known about German composer Emilie Mayer (1812-1883). Mayer studied composition with Carl Loewe after the death of her parents, writing a total of eight symphonies, eight violin sonatas, twelve cello sonatas, six piano trios, seven string quartets, seven orchestral overtures, and numerous works for piano and voice. Mayer's works were acclaimed in Germany and she toured frequently performing her music, an unheard of practice for a single woman at the time. Regrettably, however, most of her work remained unpublished at the time of her death. Written in her 30s, Mayer's stormy fourth and final movement from her second symphony reveals her bold Romantic style and growing confidence as a composer. Arranged for string orchestra and timpani, this movement was painstakingly drawn from the handwritten score, offering a profound opportunity for students to experience the music of this incredible composer for the first time.