SKU: BR.OB-4497-30
ISBN 9790004312247. 10 x 12.5 inches.
Now they began to play. To my greatest surprise, it was a strong, full orchestra, outstandingly rehearsed, the tempi nearly all perfect, everything neat and well executed. My God, how I was moved to hear basically for the first time something of mine being played without me, and without anyone really paying much attention to me. And now this very piece, the Tannhauser Overture! I sat there plagued by an indescribable inner agitation - : unfortunately, I was being sharply observed by the public, which had taken note of this; yet I noticed nothing of all this, and burst into a river of beneficial tears. (...) At the close, the wild applause of the public that had no idea about what they had just witnessed The conductor and the entire orchestra turned towards me and cheered and applauded so much that I had to stand and thank them...(Richard Wagner from Strasbourg to his wife Minna on 15 January 1858).
SKU: BR.OB-4497-27
ISBN 9790004312230. 10 x 12.5 inches.
SKU: SU.92090242
The Eastman Wind Ensemble is America's leading wind ensemble. Frederick Fennell first formulated the general concept of the wind ensemble at Eastman nearly 65 years ago. Under his leadership the group became known as the pioneering force in the wind ensemble movement in the United States and abroad. A. Clyde Roller served as conductor between 1962 and 1964, continuing the tradition established by Fennell. Donald Hunsberger became conductor in 1965 and led the ensemble for 37 years to international prominence. The ensemble's current director, Mark Davis Scatterday, was introduced as the fourth conductor of this prestigious group during the EWE's 50th anniversary celebration on February 8, 2002. Since its founding, the EWE has been the leader in elevating the wind repertory through recordings. Fennell's Mercury Recordings albums of the 1950s and early '60s are notable for their pioneering use of binaural, stereo, and 35mm recording techniques. These Living Presence recordings focused on standard band literature by the most respected classical composers -- heard for the first time in the newly balanced one-per-part instrumentation. They also centered on major repertory not found on traditional band programs, such as Mozart's Serenade in B-flat (the Gran Partita), Messiaen's Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum, and Stravinsky's Symphonies of Wind Instruments. Under Hunsberger, the EWE continued its progressive stance in recording techniques with participation in quadraphonic and digital recording. Since its founding, the ensemble has premiered more than 200 new works. The EWE and Mark Scatterday have continued this rich recording tradition with several CDs starting in 2005 with Danzante (featuring trumpet virtuosi James Thompson) on Summit Records. Track Listing Fandangos Sinfonia No 3 La Salsa: 1. Tumbao Sinfonia No 3 La Salsa: 2. Habanera Sinfonia No 3 La Salsa: 3. Danzas Sinfonia No 3 La Salsa: 4. Jolgorio Fanfarria Diferencias: 1. Fanfarria Diferencias: 2. Sonoro Diferencias: 3. Ritmico Diferencias: 4. Sonoro Diferencias: 5. Vigoroso The Phoenix from Carnaval.
SKU: FG.55011-372-5
ISBN 9790550113725.
Images of the sea figure prominently throughout my life and memories: from holidays on the Atlantic coast during my Canadian childhood to my current Baltic home, and the imagined, only later experienced Mediterranean of my ancestral heritage. As an immigrant (son of an immigrant) bound to two northern countries, the sea is emblematic of my twin homelands, from the expanses of water surrounding them to those separating them. A Mari usque ad Mare. The sea is also an enduring image of the unknown, of expanses unexplored, of the raw power of nature and, for too many currently, of terror holding a hope of refuge - or the pain of loss. Such disparate ideas were captured for me in the seascapes of the New York painter MaryBeth Thielhelm, whom I met in 2008 during a residency on the Gulf of Mexico. Her vast, abstract, nearly monochromatic depictions of imaginary seas in wildly varying moods were the catalyst for a concerto where the piano is frequently far from a hero battling a collective, but rather acts as a channel for elemental forces surging up from the orchestra, floating - sometimes barely so - on its constantly shifting surface. There are few themes to speak of, beyond a handful of iconic ideas that periodically cycle upward. Rather, the piano's material is largely an ornamentation of the more primal rhythmic and harmonic impulses from the orchestra below - a poetic interpretation, if you will, of the more immediate experience of facing the vastness of some unknown body of water. The title Nameless Seas is borrowed from one of Thielhelm's exhibitions, as are those of the four movements, which are bridged together into two halves of roughly equal weight - one rhapsodic and free, the other more single-minded and direct, separated only by a short breath. The opening movement, Nocturne, is predominantly calm, if brooding, darkness and light alternating throughout. Lyrical arabesques sparkle over gently lapping cross-currents in the strings and mirrored timpani, the piano's full power only rarely deployed. The waves gradually build, drawing in the full orchestra for a meeting of forces in Land and Sea, a brighter, more warmly lyrical scene that unfolds in series of dreamlike, sometimes even nostalgic visions, which for me carry strong memories of sitting on rocks above surging Atlantic waves. The third movement, Wake, is a fast, perpetual-motion texture of glinting, darting rhythms and sudden shafts of light, with a prominent part for the steel drums, limning the piano's quicksilver figurations. An ecstatic climax crashes into a solo cadenza that grows progressively calmer and more introspective rather than virtuosic. Much of the tension finally releases into Unclaimed Waters, a drifting, meditative seascape in which the piano is progressively engulfed by a series of ever-taller waves, ultimately dissolving into a tolling, rippling continuum of sound. It has been a great privilege to realize such a long-held dream as this piece, and to write it for not one, but two great pianists. Risto-Matti Marin and Angela Hewitt, both of whose friendship and support have been unfailing and humbling, share the dedication. Nameless Seas was commissioned by the PianoEspoo festival and Canada's National Arts Centre, with the premieres in Ottawa and Helsinki led by Hannu Lintu and Olari Elts. Thanks are due also to the Jenny and Antti Wihuri fund, whose generous grant provided me with much-needed time, and Escape to Create in Seaside, Florida, the source to which I returned to do a large part of the work.
