SKU: FG.55011-574-3

ISBN 9790550115743.

Kalevi Aho (b.1949) was only 18 years old when he completed his String Quartet no. 1 in g minor (1967). Nonetheless it was already the second one of its kind: the earlier string quartet in a minor got christened String Quartet No. 0 and banned from performing. The g minor quartet was heard the first time only 50 years after it was born, when the Kamus Quartet premiered it at the Musica Kalevi Aho Festival in Forssa on June 28, 2019. In Aho's home town, Forssa, it was not possible to study composition with a teacher: My model in this and the other works I composed while I was at school was all the mostly tonal music I had personally played on the violin or heard on the radio. The first movement, Moderato, begins in variation form, until followed by a fugue based on the variation theme. The initially lyrical second movement has a quick, virtuosic and light middle section. The third movement is a very quick scherzo that becomes dramatic, and the work ends with a chorale-like finale. The composer tells: When I got to study composition at the Sibelius Academy in autumn 1968 and showed the quartet to my teacher, Einojuhani Rautavaara, he said there was no point my studying tonal harmony and tonal formal constructions any longer; that I could do the exams in them straight away and start the courses in modern music resources there and then..

SKU: CA.3113607

ISBN 9790007244958. Language: German/English.

The cantata Erforsche mich Gott und erfahre mein Herz BWV 136 was composed in Bach's first year as Kantor of St. Thomas's in Leipzig and was first performed on the 8th Sunday after Trinity, the 18th July 1723. The librettist is unknown. The title of the cantata is taken from verse 23 of Psalm 139: Erforsche mich Gott und erfahre mein Herz; prufe mich und erfahre, wie ich's meine. (Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts) The opening chorus forms an extended fugue, framed by string writing bursting with energy. The obbligato horn accentuates and enriches the movement with a special tonal color. The alto aria in F sharp minor (movement 3) comprises a trio movement with an oboe d'amore as solo instrument in a contrasting range - a presto middle section which dramatically charges the words Denn seines Eifers Grimm vernichtet (For the fury of its zeal will destroy). In the duet (movement 5) the text is sung by tenor and bass line by line, sometimes imitating contrapuntally, and sometimes both singing together dramatically in homophonic writing. A simple chorale setting to the melody Auf meinen lieben Gott concludes the cantata. Particularly charming here is the violin which joins the four vocal parts as an independent part. Score available separately - see item CA.3113600.

SKU: BR.EB-9259

World premiere: Stockholm (Festival O/MODERNT), June 19, 2017

ISBN 9790004185599. 9 x 12 inches.

When Hugo Ticciati asked me to write a new piece for his quartet, I was immediately enthusiastic about this project. I love how Hugo and his O/MODERNT String Quartet unite old and new music in a completely natural way. So, I was absolutely excited about Hugo`s idea of having my piece based on two of my idols, Bach and Beethoven, deconstructing the one and constructing the other. With all my respect for these great composers I gave to the piece a very personal inner part consisting of my own music that influenced and inspired the other parts. For the whole piece I felt very close to Beethoven, who said: To make a fugue is not art, which [is something] I have made dozens of times in my study. But the imagination will assert its rights and must come today, in light of the old traditional form, to another truly poetic element. De/Con is a travel into different centuries with different sound-languages. For me, it was like having a wonderful constructive discussion with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven, each of us trying to speak our own language, approaching the others step by step. The piece could be defined as a Love Letter to two of the greatest composers ever. De/Con could be preceded by (parts of) Johann Sebastian Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of the Fugue) and succeeded by Ludwig van Beethoven's Grosse Fuge (Great Fugue). Ideally, then, all parts should be played attacca. It could, but it hasn't to be played with these two pieces. (Manuela Kerer)

World premiere: Stockholm (Festival O/MODERNT), June 19, 2017.

SKU: CA.3102507

ISBN 9790007092931. Language: German/English.

This cantata for the 14th Sunday after Trinity was composed in August 1723 and is from Bach's first cycle of cantatas for Leipzig. It is distinguished by its unique opening chorus, which is a four-part choral fugue with independent instrumental parts in which Bach has interwoven a four-part chorale (Herzlich tut mich verlangen) played by the winds. This is an artistic combination which expands to as many as ten real parts. The second aria Offne meinen schlechten Liedern, is distinguished by an unusual instrumental coloring in which the soprano and the strings, supported by the oboes, are joined by 3 recorders. The edition is the product of a new evaluation of the source situation (see Bach-Jahrbuch 2006). Score available separately - see item CA.3102500.

SKU: CA.3107607

ISBN 9790007044923. Key: C major / a minor. Language: German/English.

The cantata Die Himmel erzahlen die Ehre Gottes (The heavens are telling of God in glory) BWV 76 by Johann Sebastian Bach was written for the 2nd Sunday after Trinity, which fell on 6 June 1723 in the year it was first performed. This ambitious two-part work was the second cantata which Bach wrote after taking up the position of Kantor of St. Thomas's in Leipzig. Bach's aim was evidently to demonstrate a particularly wide range of musical forms in both the arias and the recitatives in this cantata. The opening chorus is based on verses 2 and 4 of Psalm 19, with verse 4 structured as a choral fugue. Both parts of the cantata end with a chorale movement with different verses from the Lutheran hymn Es woll uns Gott genadig sein. The text refers loosely to the epistle reading from the 1st letter of St John, but deals more with general thoughts about the temptations of the Christian which can be overcome through love. Bach also performed the first part of the cantata later with minor revisions, but evidently no alterations to the text, on Reformation Day in Leipzig. Score available separately - see item CA.3107600.