This new collection of folk songs - 'Laula kultani' (Finnish for 'Sing, my sweetheart') - offers choirs attractive literature to expand their repertoires and to perform concerts for many different occasions. The creative choral director has many possibilities for performing this music: thus instruments can be added, or - if there are difficulties due to pronouncing a foreign language - a small ensemble can sing the song, while the remainder of the choir hums the music in the background. The selected songs about themes of love and love's sorrow, dance, festival and celebration, are traditional folksongs which are well-known and popular in the countries of their origin. In puttingtogether this collection special emphasis has been placed on the musical quality of the settings. In addition to traditional settings, many songs in new arrangments by contemporary composers have been included. The settings range in difficulty from easy to moderately difficult. / Musique traditionnelle / Répertoire / Choeur

Les Troyens - The Trojans: Opera in 5 Acts Berlioz composed Les Troyens towards the end of his life drawing on Virgil?s epic poem The Aeneid which he had admired since his childhood. In his Memoirs he recounts how his father a country doctor read Virgil to him and how the story of Dido?s tragic fate reduced him to tears which he tried hard to conceal. The score was finished in April 1858 but he was unable to persuade the Paris Opera to mount it (his earlier opera Benvenuto Cellini had been a failure there in 1838) and eventually he agreed to allow the last three acts to be performed under the title Les Troyens à Carthage. This took placeat the Théâtre-lyrique an enterprising but ill-equipped theatre in November 1863 and although it was much admired there were no more performances before Berlioz?s death in 1869. In the history of French music Les Troyens stand out as a grand opera that avoided the shallow glamour of Meyerbeer and Halévy but therefore paid the price of long neglect. In our own time the opera has finally come to be seen as one of the greatest operas of the 19th century. Urtext of the New Berlioz Edition Full score (BA5442) and vocal score (BA5442-90) available for sale Performance material (BA5442-72) available for hire