Always distinctive. Always unique. The music of René Clausen always leaves a lasting impression upon those who listen and those who perform. “All This Night” pairs the contrasting poetry of William Austin(1587-1634) and Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1834) with contrasting musical styles. Both texts are poems of praise referring to the wonders of creation and the power of the Almighty. Clausen very cleverly sets the medieval textwith a contemporary feel-syncopation some dissonance modern harmonies – while the contemporary text is set in a more traditional chorale-like homophonic style.

Symphony No. 6 'At The End Of Day' (1997-99) for Orchestra by Per Nørgård. Programme note: ”… with the Lord a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day”  (New Testament 2 Peter 3:8)  My SYMPHONY NO. 6 was commissioned by the Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra the Göteborg Symphony Orchestra and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra to be premiered at the millenium 2000.  The subtitle AT THE END OF THE DAY can be understood literally or it can mean “when all is added up”. However in my opinion nothing ever quite adds up there is always “something” missing any ending will be provisional ...  This symphony appears to end only a few minutes into the first movement the first passage as the music fades away to almost-silence after a start of flying colours. But then there is still “something” a small motive (first heard in the initial sound-waves) which reappears hesitant but persistent and this embryo is what leads on the musical progression. An agitated section of many instrumental voices comes next until all the voices become obsessed with the same phrase a see-saw motive based on thirds. This section evolves into almost martial ferocity when broken off by a tutti descent into an extreme bass-world (a bass-world which actually permeates the whole symphony emplyoing instruments that I have never used before: double-bass tuba double-bass trombone double-bass clarinet and bass flute).  The second movement the second passage apparently takes off where the first passage ended but now the events are more ambiguous and the same music may be perceived as fast-moving one moment and slow-moving the next. This section is a kind of passacaglia the characteristic baroque bass-variation.  Without a break follows the third and last passage in a

Commissioned jointly for Colin Currie by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. First performance on 14th May 2008 at Symphony Hall Birmingham by Colin Currie (percussion) and the City ofBirmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins.NOTE FOR PERFORMANCEIn table top the unpitched solo percussion part in the 9th movement the scoring was initially left open. The present full score showsa suggested instrumentation  which was devised by Colin Currie in conjunction with the composer. Soloists  should attempt to match the timbres used but should not feel constrained by the  exact choice ofinstruments.COMPOSER’S NOTEThe percussion instruments used in a table of noises in some ways represent the odd things that were on my great uncle Ash’s parlour table that fascinated me as a child. There is even abottle; there was always a milk bottle with the silver top pushed in surrounded by other essentials for his life. From birth he was quite severely handicapped in one of his legs and couldn’t walk too far without his trusty crutch.He kept everything he needed within arm’s length. In the list of instruments for the solo part there’s everything from deep log drum sounds to very high metallic chime sounds. Wood glass metal and a whistle. Mostlysmall-scale things with a large gong behind used sparingly. I think that we managed to keep below 30 instruments in all which I was keen to do. I didn’t want scores of things that are only played once they have to earn theirkeep. I didn’t want to use a marimba but thought that trying to make the xylophone sound in a more expressive way would be more of a challenge. The percussionist sits for much of the time on a Cajon a flamenco instrument which isessentially a wooden box. The player hits the front of the box in various ways rather as you play a conga. There are guitar strings inside and bells to add to the overall colour. I would like to thank Colin Currie for the

Premiered at the festival 'Magma Berlin 2002' by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by David Robertson 29th November 2002.3 Flutes 1st and 2nd also Alto Flutes in G 3rd also Piccolo3 Oboes 3rd also Cor Anglais in F3 Clarinets in Bb 3rd also Bass Clarinet in Bb3 Bassoons 3rd also Contra Bassoon4 Horn in F3 Trumpets in Bb3 Trombones1 TubaTimpani4 Percussion four playersPlayer 1 - Vibraphone Glockenspiel Water Chime Bell Tree Japanese Wood Blocks Cymbal (Suspended) TamTam (Medium)Player 2 - Triangle Tubular Bells Crotales Marimba Chinese CymbalPlayer 3 - TamTam (Large) Java Gong(Large very low) Bell Lyra (Handheld) Sizzle CymbalPlayer 4 - Bass Drum Glockenspiel Xylophone1 Harp1 Piano also CelestaStrings - 16/14/12/10/8All transposing instruments are notated in their relevant transpositions.Any accidental apply only to the note that it immediately precedes except tied notes.Naturals appear occasionally 'for safety'.'LISTENING EARTH' is a symphonic drama a one- movement composition in four parts based on the work by two writers Joseph Addison (1672-1719) and W.H.Auden (1907-1973). Joseph Addison is not particularly well known; he was English a classical scholar essayist poet and politician but one of his hymns was used by Benjamin Britten. in his setting of a Thomas Tallis canon.The hymn is singularly beautiful and being a composer always inspired by extramusical stimuli such as poems nature paintings I was immediately convinced when I carne across the Addison hymn that here was exactly what I wanted to use as my major source of inspiration for this piece commissioned by and written for The Berlin Philharmonic. I don't refer to the hymn in its entirety but have chosen the following 3 excerpts all acting as mottos for the first three sections of the piece thus turning the piece into a straightforward tonepoem in the classical

The harmonic model for this piece is based on a subdivision of pitches in primary and secondary notes in principle any chord can be viewed from it's structural qualities including interval content and symmetry but it might also be conceived from a more acoustical point of view.The parallel basis for this work is a sequence of 12-tone chords repeated as a chaconne every chord has it's Alter-Ego an overtone series the fundamentals of which together form a bass line. By articulating the cycle differently with always varied diagonal paths between two layers Lindberg has aimed to give the music some direction despite it's vague repetitive structure.Workfor Orchestra premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall London by the London Sinfonietta under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen April 1990.

Edizione critica a cura di Claudio Toscani (testi in italiano e inglese). La fille du régiment, always one of Donizetti?s most popular stage works, was first performed at the Théâtre de l?Opéra-Comique in Paris on 11 February 1840. It was composed by Donizetti, to a libretto by Saint-Georges and Bayard, in 1839, for the French debut of soprano Juliette Bourgeois. Later on, Donizetti prepared an Italian version as well, using a libretto adaptation by Calisto Bassi, and making several alterations to the French version of the score (the premiere of the new version, entitled La figlia del reggimento, took place at La Scala Theatre in Milano on 3 October 1840). The opera enjoyed tremendous success ? at the Opéra-Comique alone, more than one thousand performances were given between 1840 and 1917 ?, and was widely staged in the major European and American opera houses. Owing to the lack of available autograph music sources ? only a few score sketches and fragments survive, kept at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France ?, the principal source for this edition is the printed score prepared by the Parisian publisher Georges Schonenberger during the spring of 1840. Together with the full score, Schonenberger also engraved and printed the orchestral parts. Previously, the publishing house had printed the piano vocal score of several selected numbers from La fille du régiment, as well as the complete score reduction of the work. The Schonenberger edition constitutes, however, a problematical source. The engravers had to work under great pressure - the score was assembled in less than a month -, and the final product turned out to be of mediocre quality, abounding in imperfections, errors, and inconsistencies affecting both the literary and the musical texts. This critical edition has therefore been realized, first of all, through a careful reconstruction process: the text handed down by tradition was compared with a number of sources (including the manuscript scores of the Italian version) that have enabled the editor to address the multiple problems posed by the principal source. The spoken dialogues, missing in the printed music sources, are derived from the libretto used for the première. The critical edition of La fille du régiment reinstates Tonio?s romance «Pour me rapprocher de Marie» from Act Two, included in the original libretto and actually sung at the première, but expunged from the Schonenberger edition of the score. Donizetti himself cut the romance soon after the première, possibly because of the tenor?s poor performance - as a result, the omission became customary. The appendices to this critical edition present, additionally, two unpublished variants, handed down in form of complete and autograph score: these pieces, crossed out or modified through the compositional process, add fresh new possibilities to current performance practices. The first one is a duet for Marie and Tonio that Donizetti had originally devised for Act Two, but later deleted from the score. The second one is a preliminary draft of the Act Two Finale, later expunged and replaced, in both music and literary text, by the final version.

A Wedding Bouquet was the idea of Lord Berners who wanted Frederick Ashton to make a ballet pantomime out of one of Gertrude Stein's plays and who both wrote the music and designed the 'decor' and costumes. The name ofthe play was 'They must be Wedded to Their Wife' but this was thought too long for advertising and was changed to A Wedding Bouquet. Lord Berners went to visit Gertrude Stein in Bilignin and she liked the idea and he foundin her house a carpet which gave him the pattern for the backcloth for the ballet.The ballet was first spoken of as a choral ballet and the opera chorus did sing or chant the words at the early performances but it was entirelyunlike any other choral ballet before or since. The words explained the action introduced the characters made utterly irrelevant comments worked themselves into a frenzied rhythmical accompaniment or injected on occasional aptphrase that devastated dancers and audience alike. Not all of the words have ever been really intelligible but gradually the audience got to know certain phrases by heart and the ballet has a devoted public although inevitably ithas always been a rather special one and to this day there are people who detest the whole affair don't 'understand' it and think it an absurd waste of time and talent.

It is uncertain whether the chorale theme of 'Haydn Variations' is actually by Haydn. It is certain however that the Variations are characteristic of Brahms' mature orchestral style and his strict sense of form.With 'Academic Ouverture' the composer expressed his thanks to the University of Breslau for giving him an honorary doctorate. Although the 'brooding' 'Tragic Ouverture' which had originally been intended for this purpose seemed no longer appropriate to Brahms for that occasion it has always been a resounding success since its world premiere.

Sibelius completed this work in February 1923 and conducted the premiere at Helsinki on February 19 of that same year. His first reference to the work in 1918 described it as wild and passionate in character. Dark with pastoral contrasts. Probably in 4 movements...intensifying in a dark orchestral swell [until] the main theme is drowned. At the same time he cautioned that his plan could change — and how it did! — depending on the way my musical thinking develops. I am always a slave to my themes and obey their demands.

Michael White writing in the Independent On Sunday newspaper says '. . .perhaps the most impressive motivated handling of orchestral forces in an output which has always demonstrated an extraordinary control of large forms. And the most telling of its time-tricks is that it compacts such a fecundity of ideas into a duration that you are astonished to discover barely exceeds 15 minutes. It feels twice as long; and I don't say that as criticism. Merely as a tribute to the substance depth and technical accomplishment of an outstanding score'.The Independent on Sunday 25th July 1993

There is always a need for anthems that are an encouragement to race relations. This anthem is an inspiring reminder that we are all part of the family of God by celebrating our community in Christ. The effective use of “InChrist There Is No East or West” makes this a useful introit or special anthem for World Communion Sunday. Important!

Kantate zum Weihnachtsfest. Par BACH JOHANN SEBASTIAN. The Christmas cantata Gloria in excelsis Deo BWV 191, which has always presented researchers with many challenging problems, is among the few works to Latin words set by Johann Sebastian Bach. It consists of three sections - a finely-woven duet flanked by two festive choral movements - which we are to encounter again almost note for note in the world-famous Mass in B minor./ Répertoire / Orchestre