SKU: FG.55011-372-5

ISBN 9790550113725.

Images of the sea figure prominently throughout my life and memories: from holidays on the Atlantic coast during my Canadian childhood to my current Baltic home, and the imagined, only later experienced Mediterranean of my ancestral heritage. As an immigrant (son of an immigrant) bound to two northern countries, the sea is emblematic of my twin homelands, from the expanses of water surrounding them to those separating them. A Mari usque ad Mare. The sea is also an enduring image of the unknown, of expanses unexplored, of the raw power of nature and, for too many currently, of terror holding a hope of refuge - or the pain of loss.
Such disparate ideas were captured for me in the seascapes of the New York painter MaryBeth Thielhelm, whom I met in 2008 during a residency on the Gulf of Mexico. Her vast, abstract, nearly monochromatic depictions of imaginary seas in wildly varying moods were the catalyst for a concerto where the piano is frequently far from a hero battling a collective, but rather acts as a channel for elemental forces surging up from the orchestra, floating - sometimes barely so - on its constantly shifting surface. There are few themes to speak of, beyond a handful of iconic ideas that periodically cycle upward. Rather, the piano's material is largely an ornamentation of the more primal rhythmic and harmonic impulses from the orchestra below - a poetic interpretation, if you will, of the more immediate experience of facing the vastness of some unknown body of water.
The title Nameless Seas is borrowed from one of Thielhelm's exhibitions, as are those of the four movements, which are bridged together into two halves of roughly equal weight - one rhapsodic and free, the other more single-minded and direct, separated only by a short breath. The opening movement, Nocturne, is predominantly calm, if brooding, darkness and light alternating throughout. Lyrical arabesques sparkle over gently lapping cross-currents in the strings and mirrored timpani, the piano's full power only rarely deployed. The waves gradually build, drawing in the full orchestra for a meeting of forces in Land and Sea, a brighter, more warmly lyrical scene that unfolds in series of dreamlike, sometimes even nostalgic visions, which for me carry strong memories of sitting on rocks above surging Atlantic waves. The third movement, Wake, is a fast, perpetual-motion texture of glinting, darting rhythms and sudden shafts of light, with a prominent part for the steel drums, limning the piano's quicksilver figurations. An ecstatic climax crashes into a solo cadenza that grows progressively calmer and more introspective rather than virtuosic. Much of the tension finally releases into Unclaimed Waters, a drifting, meditative seascape in which the piano is progressively engulfed by a series of ever-taller waves, ultimately dissolving into a tolling, rippling continuum of sound.
It has been a great privilege to realize such a long-held dream as this piece, and to write it for not one, but two great pianists. Risto-Matti Marin and Angela Hewitt, both of whose friendship and support have been unfailing and humbling, share the dedication. Nameless Seas was commissioned by the PianoEspoo festival and Canada's National Arts Centre, with the premieres in Ottawa and Helsinki led by Hannu Lintu and Olari Elts. Thanks are due also to the Jenny and Antti Wihuri fund, whose generous grant provided me with much-needed time, and Escape to Create in Seaside, Florida, the source to which I returned to do a large part of the work.

SKU: FG.55011-279-7

ISBN 9790550112797.

Leaves of grass by Matthew Whittall is a major addition to the contemporary piano literature. The 12 preludes explore a wide range of styles, sonoroties and pianistic challenges.
Inspired by Walt Whitman's verses, the preludes are not programmatic in nature, but rather Whittall's personal distillations of the atmosphere of each poem. Although some hew quite closely to the poetry that gave rise to them, more often than not it was a few words, the rhythm of a phrase, or a single, iconic image that proved to be the catalyst for each piece, says the composer.
Leaves of grass is organized into three books, each containing four preludes. The preludes are ordered to produce both a sense of variety and dramatic flow within each group of four, as well as a broad, three-part structure from beginning to end. The entire suite can be performed as a grand, one-hour work, individual books or preludes can be performed on their own, or the performer may arrange their own selections.

SKU: AP.36-A162248

ISBN 9798892700863. UPC: 659359562518. English.

Édouard Lalo (1823-1892) wrote Concerto for Cello in D minor a few years after the popular Symphonie espagnole in 1876 for Belgian cellist Adolphe Fischer. The following year, Fischer was the soloist for the premiere at the Cirque d'Hiver on December 9, 1877. Influenced by his Symphonie espagnole, this concerto evokes a Spanish atmosphere. At the time of its premiere, there were few serious cello concerti, leading Lalo's Concerto to serve as a catalyst for the cello to be considered a more soloistic instrument. Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2: 4.2.3.0: Timp: Str (9-8-7-6-5 in set): Solo Vc in set.

These products are currently being prepared by a new publisher. While many items are ready and will ship on time, some others may see delays of several months.

SKU: HL.48024280

Leaves of grass by Matthew Whittall is a major addition to the contemporary piano literature. The 12 preludes explore a wide range of styles, sonoroties and pianistic challenges. Inspired by Walt Whitman's verses, the preludes are not programmatic in nature, but rather Whittall's personal distillations of the atmosphere of each poem. Although some hew quite closely to the poetry that gave rise to them, more often than not it was a few words, the rhythm of a phrase, or a single, iconic image that proved to be the catalyst for each piece, says the composer. Leaves of grass is organized into three books, each containing four preludes. The preludes are ordered to produce both a sense of variety and dramatic flow within each group of four, as well as a broad, three-part structure from beginning to end. The entire suite can be performed as a grand, one-hour work, individual books or preludes can be performed on their own, or the performer may arrange their own selections.

SKU: UT.APS-10

ISBN 9788881095056. 6.5 x 9.5 inches.

Essays by Marie-Helene Benoit-Otis, Jean-Christophe Branger, Michel Duchesneau, Stephan Etcharry, Sarah Gutsche-Miller, Jacinthe Harbec, Karen Henson, Mara Lacche, Ralph P. Locke, Anne Monjaret, Michela Niccolai, Luca Levi Sala

The crisis of dramaturgical systems in the age of European modernism, between the end of the nineteenth century and the First World War, provoked the creation of a range of original artistic solutions until the 1930s which broke apart traditional musical genres. The quest for new forms of expression thus becomes a defining feature in modernist art. Composers, riding the wave of momentum built first in literature and the fine arts, blurred the boundaries between high and low styles, and it is in this
co-existence, inherent to the new forms, that musical production found new life. Theatre studies have pinpointed this desire for artistic experimentation with Paris at its centre, the city of light, that cultural meeting ground and formidable catalyst of artistic trends. The visual spectacle produced during the forty years (approximately 1890-1930) covered in this volume has therefore been analysed in a number of different ways, deriving from the vast panorama of cultural history, interrogating theatrical materials not only from the standpoint of the <>, but also by investigating the links between high and low, mediatised culture. Musicological research applied to high art genres (song, opera, all genres of instrumental music) does not yet seem to have taken these hybrid spectacles which modify forms and genres in search of new musical and dramatic solutions into consideration, except in a few rare cases. On the other hand, new impetus has been given by a renewed interest in popular chanson and ballet. In this current volume, we have chosen to interrogate the spectacular element, that is to say the performance, as 'a text', equal in status to the music and the literary text. Therefore, the different subject areas proposed in the following chapters reveal a lesser importance of the subject material set to music by composers but a greater willingness, at the centre of this aesthetic renewal, to try out new musical forms or to adapt traditional structures to new dramatic ends.

SKU: AP.42227

UPC: 038081486123. English.

The tragic events involving organized labor known as the Ludlow massacre of 1914 served as the catalyst for this original epic work. Opening with the building of tension between factions, the exciting and contemporary work depicts the 14-hour battle and its aftermath, concluding with a musical statement of hope and resolution. (7:45).