SKU: FG.55011-510-1

ISBN 9790550115101.

Matthew Whittall's preface to Bright Ferment (2019): I have a complicated history with the string quartet. Actually, it's not that complicated. I spent months writing a huge one in my early twenties and hastily withdrew it after a long delayed premiere, vowing never to write another. In a typical case of karmic retribution, my fear of the form would eventually be overcome by the unrefusable offer to write the compulsory piece for the Banff International String Quartet Competition in my native Canada. The short duration requested, about nine minutes, also felt like a good way to wade gingerly back into the medium. The title was originally just a nice-sounding pair of words that surfaced in a brainstorming session with fellow composer Alex Freeman over an injudicious amount of fermented barley. When I looked it up later, I found that it was a phrase of older coinage, seemingly used more for poetic resonance than any fixed meaning. Ferment by itself denotes a state of confusion, change or lack of order. With bright, it takes on a more positive connotation with regard to society and creativity: a wild profusion of ideas barely checked by reason. (It may not actually mean that, but it describes this piece nicely, so let's go with it.) Fermentation in its trendy culinary usage is also hinted at via a recurrent percolating device of scattered pizzicati. As one may guess from the tone of this introduction, there is little attempt at gravity in Bright Ferment, the only means by which I felt I could sidestep the historical and expressive weight of the string quartet genre. Styles, gestures and moods are tossed around, cross-cut and abandoned in stream-of-consciousness fashion, connected by little except an intuitive sense of rightness in their juxtaposition. If the piece acquires depth in spite of me, it will only be because its disparate parts amplify and strengthen each other simply by being together - much like the ensemble itself. Bright Ferment was commissioned by the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, with additional funding from the Americas Society (New York), for the 2019 Banff International String Quartet Competition. Duration: ca. 9 minutes.

SKU: SU.29150030

String Quartet No. 8 was composed in the summer of 2016 and premered in April 2017 by the Auriga String Quartet at Indiana State University. Set in three large movements of constrasting moods. Duration: 30’ Composed: 2016 Published by: Elliott Miles McKinley.

SKU: CA.5008714

ISBN 9790007079413. Key: F major. Language: all languages.

Rheinberger began work on his second Symphony during his visit to Italy with his wife in 1874. He was commissioned to write it by an orchestral society in Florence - an indication that his reputation had already spread throughout Europe. The autograph score contains a poem by his wife Fanny, which in four sections expressed the moods of impressions of the visit which seem to underlie the symphony. Contemporaries praised particularly the beauty of the Adagio. The work is here presented for the first time in an edition based critically on the sources. Score and part available separately - see item CA.5008700.

SKU: M7.BRP-179

As a woman composer she found less recognition in the Netherlands, except from colleagues and friends. Cellist Marix Loevensohn frequently performed her Poème for cello and orchestra, while Louis Zimmermann, concertmaster of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, premiered the Concert Piece for Violin and Orchestra in 1935, conducted by Willem Mengelberg. Her international breakthrough began in 1938, when violinist Willem Noske played this work, full of 'Oriental moods,' in Prague and Paris. In October 1941 it was also performed several times in the United States with Ruth Posselt as violinist. However, the prospect of further international engagements became blocked by the war.

SKU: CA.2729305

ISBN 9790007181086. Text language: Latin.

Antonin Dvorak's impressive Stabat Mater for soloists, chorus and orchestra is probably the best-known of the composer's sacred works. Some painful experiences - in 1875 his first daughter died, and in 1877 he lost two other children in quick succession - may have led to Dvorak's preoccupation with the suffering of the Mother of God, who stands weeping beneath the cross of her son. The music enters into the different moods of the liturgical texts with great sensitivity. Nine movements in slow to moderate tempi serve as a kind of Passion meditation, before the ecstasy of a vision of the resurrection wins the upper hand at the end of the tenth movement. With our newly-published arrangement for chamber orchestra (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon, timpani, and strings), smaller choirs now have the opportunity of performing this work without the choir being drowned out by a large-scale symphony orchestra. The symphonic character of the work is nevertheless preserved. This scoring offers an optimal balance between transparency and orchestral sound. All vocal parts (soloists and chorus) are identical with the original version. Vocal score and choral score can be used also together with the original version, which is in preparation.

SKU: CA.5008719

ISBN 9790007132514. Key: F major. Language: all languages.

Rheinberger began work on his second Symphony during his visit to Italy with his wife in 1874. He was commissioned to write it by an orchestral society in Florence - an indication that his reputation had already spread throughout Europe. The autograph score contains a poem by his wife Fanny, which in four sections expressed the moods of impressions of the visit which seem to underlie the symphony. Contemporaries praised particularly the beauty of the Adagio. The work is here presented for the first time in an edition based critically on the sources. Score and parts available separately - see item CA.5008700.

SKU: CA.5008711

ISBN 9790007079383. Key: F major. Language: all languages.

Rheinberger began work on his second Symphony during his visit to Italy with his wife in 1874. He was commissioned to write it by an orchestral society in Florence - an indication that his reputation had already spread throughout Europe. The autograph score contains a poem by his wife Fanny, which in four sections expressed the moods of impressions of the visit which seem to underlie the symphony. Contemporaries praised particularly the beauty of the Adagio. The work is here presented for the first time in an edition based critically on the sources. Score and part available separately - see item CA.5008700.