SKU: HL.14004213

9.0x12.0x0.175 inches.

Five Pieces for Violin and Orchestra was commissioned by Frederick Grinke and completed on 20 December 1961. The BBC Symphony Orchestra with Frederick Grinke (violin) and conducted by the composer, gave the first performance on 31 July 1962 at the Royal Albert Hall, London during the BBC Proms season. This work is so constructed that each piece is complete in itself and can be played separately, while at the same time the whole set of five constitutes a structural unit. A basic motif consisting of a rising semitone followed by a falling tone, and its inversion plays an important part in every piece. Thus the first piece, which is of a slow and meditative character, begins with this theme in the bass. It is also heard in the first entry of the solo part, and thereafter every episode is in some way derived from it. The next piece, a vigorous and strongly marked 'allegro', uses the semitone of the original figure as its starting point. A second theme appears, first on the horns and is later taken up by the solo violin, while a third section has the initial idea as its accompaniment. Next comes an extended scherzo in free form very closely based on initial motif. The fourth is a purely melodic piece containing allusions in its middle section to the basic figure. Here the strings only are used for accompaniment. In the first section, violas and cellos are divided in the middle section, and all the strings are used in the last, which is otherwise an almost exact repetition of the opening. The Finale is a lighter movement than the others, concerned mainly with giving the soloist material for display, but not unconnected with what has gone before.

SKU: BR.EB-9386

ISBN 9790004188569. 0 x 0 inches.

The Violin Sonata No. 1 in E minor, op. 73, a Grand Sonata for Violin and Piano, occupies an important position in Joachim Raff's oeuvre: it reflects numerous artistic, aesthetic, biographical, and reception-historical aspects characteristic of Raff. The work was composed in Weimar in 1854, when Raff was going through a process of artistic self-discovery. He increasingly distanced himself from his mentor Franz Liszt and intensively explored Wagner as well as the ideal of absolute music - this is also reflected in the music of the sonata. While Raff described the first two movements as objectified, he perceived the last two movements as a piece of him, that is, not free of extra-musical influences.The 1st movement, with its expansive main theme, is reminiscent of Mendelssohn; the 2nd movement reveals the refinement of classical-romantic work with musical material. The 3rd movement, with its partly rhythmic, virtuoso accompanying figures and harmonically advanced passages, allows a deeply romantic, almost tormented insight into a soul life a la Sturm und Drang. The partly irascible last movement revisits already familiar themes and thus creates a musical framework.In collaboration with the Joachim-Raff-Archiv Lachen (CH)

First Urtext Edition of the Grand Sonata for Violin and Piano.

SKU: OU.9780193583245

ISBN 9780193583245. 12 x 8 inches.

For violin and piano The composer writes: The structure is a short set of double variations, the two themes following a short introduction. One is flamboyant and rhetorical, the other gentle and lyrical. The first develops rhythmically, through a toccata to a vigorous dance, the second becomes increasingly decorated so that the line is almost dissolved, but finally emerges in its clearest, simplest form. In a coda each musical character disappears into silence.

SKU: BR.EB-9413

ISBN 9790004188873. 9 x 12 inches.

For a long time after Romanticism had come to the fore, it was generally agreed that Brahms somehow did not get it: History and Progress - it was thought - were proceeding along one clear path and Brahms - who was composing sonatas and symphonies instead of nocturnes and symphonic poems - had taken the wrong way. Almost one century later, Schonberg wrote an essay, Brahms, der Fortschrittliche (Brahms, the progressive), in which he explained that it wasn't like that at all.Fully assuming the risk to appear somehow irreverent, I have to confess: Over the years, I came to the conclusion that the present - and the future - can be created only by loving the past. As Brahms had shown us, it is only by accepting the challenge of taking our heritage into our own hands, that we can create something new. We cannot avoid engaging with the past. Therefore, starting with my Sinfonia n. 1, I began to flirt with such a strong and effective musical structure like the sonata form. I re-read and freely transformed it, because it is a sturdy and resilient structure, but also a theatrical and colorful one. For me, it is a happy structure. And I think that today more than ever we need something like this: We need to find places - even imaginary ones - where we can give happiness a form of its own.Nicola Campogrande, December 2020

World premiere: Bologna/Italy, Streaming, April 11, 2021Commissioned by the Fondazione Musica Insieme.