SKU: PR.11641139S

UPC: 680160682119.

Barcarolles for a Sinking City was inspired by the city of Venice, a place that has long held the fascination of artists, writers and composers, and which I have been lucky enough to visit on several occasions. Sadly it seems that future generations may not be so lucky: in addition to the city's slow sinking and recently discovered tilting, studies predict that if global warming and the resultant rise of ocean levels is unabated, the entire city (as well as many other coastal cities around the globe) will be under water by 2100.   I. Funeral Gondola The late, cryptic piano works of Franz Liszt made a profound impression on me as a young composer, among them two works he entitled La Lugubre Gondola (usually translated as The Funeral Gondola ) which were said to be a premonition of Wagner's death in Venice, his coffin transported through the canals in a black gondola. These late pieces of Liszt acquired even greater significance to me after I spent two summers in Bayreuth under the patronage of Friedelind Wagner, the granddaughter of Wagner and great-granddaughter of Liszt. This movement is a meditation on Wagner, Liszt, Venice and its own evanescence. II. Barcarolle/Quodlibet The Quodlibet (Latin for what pleases) is a musical form dating back to the 15th century where many disparate melodies are juxtaposed. Popular in the Renaissance, sacred and secular melodies were combined, often to comical effect due to the resultant incongruity of the words. The form was considered the ultimate test of a composer's mastery of counterpoint. The most famous Quodlibet is without doubt the final Variation of Bach's Goldberg Variations. As a form the Quodlibet is less common in more recent music, although examples can be found in the works of Kurt Weill and David Del Tredici.   My own Barcarolle/Quodlibet was inspired by the (perhaps apocryphal) story of the funeral where musicians were asked to play a Bach Choral, but due to miscommunication played instead the Bacarolle from The Tales of Hoffmann. Here, the Bach Choral Allen Menschen mussen sterben (All Men Must Die) is heard in the strings pizzicato, with a tempo indication In slow motion. The alto line of the Bach suggests a phrase from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (Alle Menchen werden Bruder) heard in the muted trombone. Before long, the famous tune from Offenbach's opera is heard, followed by quotations from iconic Barcarolles by Chopin, Mendelssohn and Faure, as well as two Venetian popular songs and more Beethoven.   III. Barcarola/Ostinato/Carillon An ostinato is a repeated musical figure, and carillon is Italian for music box. This movement references the obsolete genre of salon pieces that imitated music boxes: such works by composers like Liadov and Gretchaninov used to be a mainstay of pianists' encore repertoire. This movement is however much darker in conception than those pleasant trifles. Utilizing the full battery of percussion, the carefully notated temporal slowing of the ostinato becomes overwhelmed by a poignant chorale melody before this box is snapped shut.   IV. Barcarolle Oubliee (Forgotten Barcarolle) Marked limpido (still) the final movement begins with the sound of rain produced by a percussion instrument called (appropriately) a rain stick. Halting phrases in the harp coalesce into the accompaniment for a plangent melody heard in the clarinet. The central Adagio of this movement leads to a shattering climax, before the opening phrases return and dissipate into nothingness.

SKU: CA.3111703

ISBN 9790007048648. Key: G major. Language: German/English. Text: Schutz, Johann Jakob. Text: Johann Jakob Schutz.

The cantata Sei Lob und Ehr dem hochsten Gut (All glory to the Lord of Lords) BWV 117 is one of a small group of Bach's chorale cantatas which use exclusively the text of the chorale, including in the three recitatives and three arias. Only the autograph score of the cantata survives; although this enables an approximate dating to be made (c. 1730), it does not give the occasion for which the cantata was written. The choice of chorale may indicate it was composed for a wedding. Recently it has been suggested that the occasion for its composition was the birthday of the Duke of Weissenfels in 1731; but there is no firm evidence to support either theory. The cantata opens with an extended movement for chorus in which Bach contrasts the concertante orchestra with festive, almost homophonic choral writing. This chorus movement is repeated at the end. A simple chorale movement which comes fourth indicates that the nine-movement cantata was performed in two sections. Score available separately - see item CA.3111700.

SKU: RM.BROU02251-BA

ISBN 9790231022513.

Happy birthday to you, Prosit, Il est des notres.

SKU: FG.55011-614-6

ISBN 9790550116146.

Kalevi Aho (b. 1949) composed Lied for oboe and piano (2017) as an 80th-birthday gift for Jouko Teikari, former solo oboist in the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. The oboe is by nature a very singing instrument and Lied brings out precisely this aspect. Lasting five-and-a-half minutes, it is like one long instrumental song. Halfway through, it builds up to a powerful climax, from which it gradually calms down to the quiet, stagnant closing bars.

SKU: CA.2730113

ISBN 9790007201302. Key: F minor. Language: Latin.

In 1856, the year in which Mozart's one-hundredth birthday was elaborately celebrated, Franz Lachner composed the Requiem in F minor op. 146. It became his most well-known and most important work. Lachner's intensive study of Mozart's music on the occasion of the commemorative year lends credence to that fact that it was not inspired by a personal loss, such as a death in the family or among his friends. Although closer examination proves that his music differed essentially from Mozart's, Lachner's work shows a clear expression of his admiration for him. The parallels between the two Requiems range from the characteristics of the organization of the text and the formal structure, to the similar treatment of individual sections, themes and motives. Score and part available separately - see item CA.2730100.

SKU: BR.CHB-14677-02

ISBN 9790004413067. 7.5 x 10.5 inches.

Since 2001 the Ninth has been included in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register. Beethoven was preoccupied with his unique work for many years, since at least 1815, and still shortly before his death, according to the highly complex source situation. The work will now finally be available as an edition produced from the new Beethoven Complete Edition in time for the 2020 anniversary year commemorating the composer's 250th birthday. Not all doubtful cases can be clarified, not all gaps closed, but numerous aspects have been further illuminated in this edition. New findings and source evaluations taken into account here, appear, for instance, pertaining to the work's title, the tradition of the metronome indications, the contrabassoon part, and the underlying vocal text in the finale, as well as in the original rendering of the sforzato and forte markings. The edition is to be considered, according to its editor Beate Angelika Kraus, as a contribution to the understanding of a work in which there is a discrepancy between its significance in musical life and the critical appreciation of its musical text..

SKU: HL.49018337

ISBN 9790001171236. UPC: 884088586904. 9.0x12.0x0.22 inches.

On her 34th birthday, Clara Schumann was not only given a grand piano by her husband, but the latest music material as well. Among them was the one-movement Concert-Allegro with Introduction for Pianoforte and Orchestra Op. 134 in which the dominance of the solo instrument is even stronger than in the previous composition Introduction and Allegro appassionato Op. 92 which also consists of one movement only. With both works, Schumann continued the reformation of the solo concerto genre as intended.

SKU: CA.3111714

ISBN 9790007048709. Key: G major. Language: German/English. Text: Schutz, Johann Jakob. Text: Johann Jakob Schutz.

The cantata Sei Lob und Ehr dem hochsten Gut (All glory to the Lord of Lords) BWV 117 is one of a small group of Bach's chorale cantatas which use exclusively the text of the chorale, including in the three recitatives and three arias. Only the autograph score of the cantata survives; although this enables an approximate dating to be made (c. 1730), it does not give the occasion for which the cantata was written. The choice of chorale may indicate it was composed for a wedding. Recently it has been suggested that the occasion for its composition was the birthday of the Duke of Weissenfels in 1731; but there is no firm evidence to support either theory. The cantata opens with an extended movement for chorus in which Bach contrasts the concertante orchestra with festive, almost homophonic choral writing. This chorus movement is repeated at the end. A simple chorale movement which comes fourth indicates that the nine-movement cantata was performed in two sections. Score and part available separately - see item CA.3111700.

SKU: CA.2730115

ISBN 9790007201326. Key: F minor. Language: Latin.

In 1856, the year in which Mozart's one-hundredth birthday was elaborately celebrated, Franz Lachner composed the Requiem in F minor op. 146. It became his most well-known and most important work. Lachner's intensive study of Mozart's music on the occasion of the commemorative year lends credence to that fact that it was not inspired by a personal loss, such as a death in the family or among his friends. Although closer examination proves that his music differed essentially from Mozart's, Lachner's work shows a clear expression of his admiration for him. The parallels between the two Requiems range from the characteristics of the organization of the text and the formal structure, to the similar treatment of individual sections, themes and motives. Score and part available separately - see item CA.2730100.

SKU: BT.SCHBB3190

Glanert composed this quartet to mark the 80th birthday of his teacher, Hans Werner Henze. Premiered by members of the Bavarian State Orchestra in Munich, 2006.