It is a surprising fact of Beethoven’s life that of all the categories of pieces he composed there are more settings of Irish songs than of any other type of music. Scottish poet Robert Burns convinced a Scottish music publisher to commission Beethoven to set his own words to Irish airs. The death of Burns in 1796 ended the project but Beethoven went on to harmonise and arrange the songs in 1814 through 1816 mainly and they were published though never achieved as great a popularity as a rival set by Thomas Moore.This simplified version for easy Cello and Piano was arranged by composer Hugo Cole an accomplished cellist who was for many years a music critic for theGuardian newspaper.

The first three movements of Johannes Brahms? E Minor Cello Sonata were composed in 1862 the last movement was written in 1865. During the first years of its performance the work was received with mixed enthusiasm. By the end of Brahms? life however it was widely performed and by the first decades of the 20th century it was firmly embedded in the repertoire of many distinguished cellists. It was notably Robert Hausmann?s advocacy of the work which seems to have contributed greatly to its promotion.Of particular value to the editors were the three early performance editions of the Cello Sonata Op.38 by Cornelius van Vliet andEdwin Hughes Hugo Becker and Carl Friedberg as well as Julius Klengel. The cellists? van Vliet Becker and Klengel?s fingering and bowing allows for a better understanding of their performance practice. As such the Bärenreiter edition comes with a Cello part marked with fingering and bowing by the editors which are based on the practices of Brahms? contemporaries. We also provide an unmarked urtext part.An important part of this edition is the extensive preface. Firstly it informs about the works? origins early performances its publication as well as early reception. Truly remarkable is the unique Performance Practice Commentary. Here the editors take the premise that already a few decades after Brahms? death a widening gulf developed between the composer?s expectations and the performance practices of the early 20th century. In a very concrete and practical way the editors summarize some of the key issues in understanding Brahms? notation with regard to rhythm and timing dynamics and accentuation dots and strokes slurring and non legato Piano pedalling and overholding piano arpeggiation and dislocation string instrument fingering string instrument harmonics and vibrato. In this way the edition offers an exciting and often surprising insight in Romantic musical interpretation.- A pioneering Urtext edition.- With an unmarked Urtext part.- With a second part including fingering and bowing based on the practices of contemporaries of Brahms.- With an extensive Performance Practice Commentary.-

Suite pour violoncelle et piano. Par LAKS SIMON. Simon Laks (1901-1983), who moved from Warsaw to Paris in 1926 at the age of 25, belonged to the large group of composers from Central and Eastern European countries who went down in 20th-century music history as the „École de Paris“. Slavic temperament amalgamated in their music with French esprit, the folklore of their native countries combined with the stylistic elements of neoclassicism and jazz typical of the time. As a member of the „Association of Young Polish Musicians“, Laks quickly made his way into French musical life. However, his career was ended with the beginning of World War 2 due to the collaboration of the Vichy government with Nazi Germany. Internment in 1941 was followed by deportation to Auschwitz in 1942. Laks survived the Shoah as a member and later leader of a camp band in Birkenau, which he testified to in his moving book Music in Auschwitz. After the traumatic experiences, Laks did not return to regular compositional activity until the 1960s, producing an opera, songs, and chamber music works, some of which were awarded important composition prizes. At the peak of this optimistic creative phase, he composed incidental music for Peretz Hirschbein's famous Yiddish comedy Dem Schmids Techter (The Blacksmith's Daughters), which premiered in New York in 1918, for a new production of the play at the Théâtre de l’Entrepôt in Paris. Along with Prokofiev's Overture on Hebrew Themes and Shostakovich's cycle From Yiddish (Jewish) Folk Poetry, it is one of the most significant 20th-century explorations of art music with Jewish folklore – homage to a culture irreparably destroyed. From the original score, Holger Groschopp compiled two suites, for violoncello and piano and piano solo, that capture the essence of Lak‘s enchanting drama music. The premiere recording of the suites with Holger Groschopp and Adele Bitter was awarded the Opus Klassik 2023 in the category Editorial Achievement of the Year. . / Date parution : 2024-01-06/ Répertoire / Violoncelle et Piano