SKU: HL.14008406

ISBN 9780711948716.

A work for solo violin and orchestra, commissioned by Donald McDonald for the 21st birthday of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the 60th birthday of the composer. It was first performed in November 1993 in Glasgow, by James Clark and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Maxwell Davies. The spell is one quoted by George Mackay Brown in his book An Orkney Tapestry: 'Let not plough be put to acre except a fiddle cross first the furrow.' Davies's dancing concerto imagines the fiddler following a route from field to field, from dance to dance, accompanied by a bunch of companions in the form of an orchestra. As the music goes on, so it gets brighter and livelier, moving from the dark colouring of clarinets, bassoons and strings to full ensemble with prominent brass and (solo) tuned percussion, as if the dancers as much as the fields were beginning to glow with new life. Score (miniature). Duration c. 20mins.

SKU: BR.PB-5354

Bach's manuscript leaves several questions unanswered.

ISBN 9790004211533. 9 x 12 inches.

When an editorial formula proves to be as compelling as in the case of the E-major Concerto BWV 1042, then its obvious that it is going to be applied again: this time to Klaus Hofmanns new Urtext edition of the A-minor Concerto. Bachs manuscript leaves several questions unanswered. The slurring, particularly in the solo part, is once again equivocal and inconsistent. Bach himself expected his performers to be creative, which is why the interpretative suggestions of Baroque expert Sigiswald Kuijken are particularly welcome. The edition for violin and keyboard instrument (with continuo ad lib.) once again contains three violin parts (the first unmarked, the second with markings and comments by Sigiswald Kuijken, the third as a facsimile). This provides well-grounded stimuli for ones own personal interpretation based on historically informed performance practice. The keyboard arrangement by Siegfried Petrenz is transparent and easy to play. A violoncello part has been added for chamber-music.

Bach's manuscript leaves several questions unanswered.

SKU: HL.14028003

ISBN 9788759862896.

Poul Ruders Polydrama (Manyfold Event) for cello and orchestra, is the last part of a drama trilogy otherwise consisting of Dramaphonia for piano and 11 instruments and Monodrama for percussion and 32 instruments. In this abstract drama, the individual listener is left entirely to his own associations. The composer has compared polydrama with the gradual defoliation of a big tree: the vigorously growing organism is attacked by a swarm of locusts until, finally, nothing remains but bare branches in a landscape of long shadows; a solitary, singing bird remains, however, like a streak of hope in an increasingly dark and pessimistic universe.

SKU: BR.PB-5509

The concertos in A minor and B flat major were first written as violoncello concertos between 1750 and 1753. They thus rank among the very first concertos for solo cello in Germany.

ISBN 9790004211694. 9 x 12 inches.

The concertos in A minor, B flat major and A major were first written as violoncello concertos between 1750 and 1753. They thus rank among the very first concertos for solo cello in Germany. The A minor Concerto, composed in 1750, is performed quite frequently today. C. P. E. Bach most likely wrote the Concerto in B flat major Wq. 171 as the last of the little work group in 1753 in Potsdam, at the court of King Frederick the Great. He reworked the composition for flute and harpsichord shortly thereafter. Various sources prove that copies of the work had made it known quite extensively in the second half of the 18th century. In his new Urtext edition, Ulrich Leisinger bases himself on two reliable manuscripts.

SKU: HL.14020990

ISBN 9780711923904. 5.5x7.5x0.283 inches.

If Davies's Cello Concerto has already evoked comparisons with Elgar's, that is perhaps an indication not only of its wealth of solo melody (there is hardly a page where the cello is not singing, or if not that, then dancing), and of its predominantly slow tempos, but also of its musical stature. This second Strathclyde concerto is a virtuoso piece for the entire ensemble, which is used almost throughout as a clutch of soloists rather than as a tutti block. The general tone is one of passionate but interior dialogue, especially in the opening Moderato and the slow movement; and though the finale is more extrovert, the work ends back in quietness and rumination.