Hugh Wood's Ballade Op.57 for Piano was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and first performed by Joanna MacGregor on 7th June 2012 at the Guildhall Bath as part of the Bath International Music Festival.'The music of Chopinis a revelation which came disgracefully late in my life. To admire is one thing; to try to emulate is quite another: and all that I have borrowed here is a title. Perhaps memories of Joanna MacGregor performing the FourthBallade very beautifully long ago played a part in the naming. But to define what a Ballade should or should not be is quite beyond me: after all Chopin and Brahms both came to quite different conclusions. I just like theold rather poetic word.A fanfarish beginning ends in a falling arpeggionic cascade which will recur in varied form at turning points throughout the piece. A major third emerges to become the accompaniment to the mainlyrical melody which becomes more and more decorated until it ends with a second cascade. The tune resumes more urgently against an undulating semiquaver accompaniment. A bigger climax suddenly gives way to a reminiscence of oneof the opening figures and then introduces alla recit. a new motif. But immediately the main melody continues this time getting gradually calmer quieter and sweeter until the new motif takes over in a passage of 6 and ismore fully worked out.From very high up the opening fanfares are heard in the distance and a faster tempo brings a more vigorous passage culminating in the biggest and most climactic of the cascades. This might be theend of the piece but it is not. A sequence of soft velvety chords rises up eventually to reveal the original major third. Four phrases of the opening melody are then heard over it in their plainest form.' - H.W.

Quirky New Piano Pieces-'In choosing to call this set of 25 pieces The FitzTanner Collection I make a tongue-in-cheek allusion to the Fitzwilliam Virginal Book.The FitzTanner Collection doffs its cap in the direction of this seminal ancient tome by borrowing some of the more fanciful and suggestive titles from which it is comprised but beyond this there is no musical connection with the original pieces at all. And yet stirred into the mix is my fondness for melding together bygone musical styles. Hence this album of piano pieces pitched at the more robust intermediate pianist combines quirky originality with older musical styles drawinginspiration not just from Renaissance dances and fantasies but from more elaborate Baroque and Classical styles too. That said the music is conceived very much with the qualities of the modern piano in mind and hence requires a good many pedal effects dynamics and plenty of expression. What emerges is I hope a collection of attractive piano pieces which cheerfully bear the traces of a time when the modern piano was but a twinkle in the eye.There is an enjoyable charisma to the Old English spellings of these pieces (as well as a healthy margin for idiosyncrasy I might add) and to my own creations I have taken great delight in adding a few light-hearted directions which I trust won't cause too much consternation. Not all of the Fitzwilliam titles are easily fathomed but the playful risqué and politically incorrect overtones are sometimes quite striking leading me to contemplate a similarly unserious vein in my own writing. To what (or indeed to whom) you may ask does 'Quodlings Delight' refer? I'm not sure I'd recognise a Quodling if it crawled out of my porridge (and likewise who the eponymous Barafostus might have been is anybody's guess). Perhaps on balance the music is best left to speak for itself and regardless of how many ways an old title can be reworked it will always come down to living breathing

pour piano. Par LENS NICHOLAS. The Belgian composer Nicholas Lens presents extremely varied etudes, exercises and simple phrases with wonderfully telling titles from poetry and everyday world for children and adults. For the most part the studies are tonal and simple and have no constructed line. They are not based on any educational concept but leave the musical dramatization to the pupils and teachers: 'Notes and rhythms are just notes and rhythms, they do not have that many rules, they do not have any pretension, they are just tools for you to use to express what you want to share'. / Date parution : 2016-11-20/ Etude / Piano

According to Ravel himself the strange title of the little Piano piece composed in 1899 ?Pavane for a dead princess? should not be ascribed too much importance. He chose it mainly because he liked the alliterationit contained. At the same time he did however agree that the music evokes ?a pavane that a little princess once might have danced at the Spanish court?.Following its premiere in 1902 the simple but effective piece gainedunparalleled popularity not least reflected in the numerous arrangements made of it one of which for small orchestra was by Ravel himself. We are publishing the work in its original version as a fitting addition to our worksby Ravel.