Italie for String Quartet Score and Parts. Par BAKER CLAUDE. Annees de pelerinage: Italie (Years of Pilgrimage: Italy) derives its title from the set of three suites for piano by Franz Liszt in which he musically portrays the strongest sensations and most lively impressions created by his travels to Italy and Switzerland during the period 1835-39. In this composition, each of the four movements explores a particular Italian city or region through, in part, the eyes of other composers who (like Liszt) were inspired to write works based on their own sojourns in the country. There are references, both literal and oblique, to music by Berlioz, Tchaikovsky and Liszt (with a sly wink from Paganini). Serious and playful elements combine in thepiece, with the two inner movements (II. Venezia e Napoli and III. Firenze) providing light-hearted foils to the more somber outer movements (I. Roma and IV. Abruzzo). Annees de pelerinage: Italie (Years of Pilgrimage: Italy) derives its title from the set of three suites for piano by Franz Liszt in which he musically portrays the strongest sensations and most lively impressions created by his travels to Italy and Switzerland during the period 1835-39. In this composition, each of the four movements explores a particular Italian city or region through, in part, the eyes of other composers who (like Liszt) were inspired to write works based on their own sojourns in the country. There are references, both literal and oblique, to music by Berlioz, Tchaikovsky and Liszt (with a sly wink from Paganini). Serious and playful elements combine in thepiece, with the two inner movements (II. Venezia e Napoli and III. Firenze) providing light-hearted foils to the more somber outer movements (I. Roma and IV. Abruzzo). / Date parution : 2019-05-27/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Par SAINT-SAENS CAMILLE. L’Offertoire pour orgue et cor chromatique en ut mineur de Camille Saint-Saëns a été écrit à Paris en 1857 et resté méconnu jusqu’à ce jour car, pour des raisons inconnues, Saint-Saëns ne l’a jamais terminé. Cependant, grâce à la note laissée sur le manuscrit par son ami et éditeur Auguste Durand, nous savons avec certitude qu’il l’a bien joué sur les orgues de l’église Saint-Merry où il était titulaire :“inachevé, composé pour Mr Halary et exécuté à l’orgue de S. Merry par l’auteur”. Saint-Saëns a-t-il improvisé une dernière variation, laissant le cor silencieux ou a-t-il juste terminé par un accord final, nous ne le saurons jamais. Écrit pour un cor chromatique, c’est-à-dire cor à mécanisme, en opposition au cor ordinaire ou “naturel” sans piston, encore beaucoup utilisé en France à cette époque, cet Offertoire inachevé est construit sous forme de variations sur l’hymne pascal O filii et filiae écrit en 1494 par Jean Tisserand. De nombreux compositeurs l’ont utilisé tout au long de l’histoire de la musique, citons Lebègue, Dandrieu, Charpentier, Cherubini ou encore Liszt. / Date parution : 2023-03-21/ Répertoire / Cor et Orgue

No. 1 d minor op. 77 and No. 2 A mejor op. 90. Par RAFF JOSEPH JOACHIM. He had been there as Franz Liszt?s assistant since 1850 and had made a name for himself in the city?s art scene now he embarked on new paths. He already composed his second Quartet in A major, op. 90, in Wiesbaden, the spa town that was to become his home for 21 years. The two quartets are unequivocal works: orchestrally-conceived, full of energetic vigor, and at times uncompromisingly modern. They confidently continue the Beethoven tradition and attest at the same time to Raff?s intensive confrontation with Richard Wagner?s music during the Weimar years. In his chamber music, the composer wanted to achieve progress ?in an inherently historical way? and ?toground the individual substance in existing forms,? as he told the Viennese violinist Josef Hellmesberger, who launched opus 77. The quartets, first published in 1860/62, found illustrious interpreters, among them, the Müller brothers? renowned ensemble, to which opus 90 was also dedicated, and Joseph Joachim. / Date parution : 2021-11-25/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes