SKU: HL.14042378

Via Della Fortuna by Sadie Harrison. Written in 2013 especially for the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra and Donatus Katkus. 6; for String Orchestra World premiere: 25th April 2013, St. Katharine's Church, Vilnius, St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Donatus Katkus. UK premiere: 10th May 2013, Cardiff Millennium Centre, Vale of Glamorgan Festival. I - Casa di Caccia Antica (The House of the Ancient Hunt) II - Casa degli Amorini Dorati (The House of the Golden Cupids) III - Casa del poeta tragico (The House of the tragic poet) IV - Return to the Casa di Caccia Antica and northwards to Lithuania and the Amber Road (Gintaro Kelias) The piece is in fourshort movements, each taking its title from one of the houses that line the main streets in Pompeii. Borrowing Mussorgsky's 'Promenade' from Pictures at an Exhibition, the piece has two walkers (violas) who take the listener with them onto the Via Della Fortuna , then lead them from house to house. Several amber objects were found within the houses, linking Pompeii with Lithuania. The last movement returns to the House of the Ancient Hunt then heads northwards along the Gintaro Kelias. The jubilant closing music refers to an earlier work (Geda's Weavings) based on Lithuanian folksongs.

Via Della Fortuna by Sadie Harrison. Written in 2013 especially for the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra and Donatus Katkus.

6; for String Orchestra

World premiere: 25th April 2013, St. Katharine'sChurch, Vilnius, St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Donatus Katkus.
UK premiere: 10th May 2013, Cardiff Millennium Centre, Vale of Glamorgan Festival.

I - Casa di Caccia Antica (The House of the AncientHunt)
II - Casa degli Amorini Dorati (The House of the Golden Cupids)
III - Casa del poeta tragico (The House of the tragic poet)
IV - Return to the Casa di Caccia Antica and northwards to Lithuania and the Amber Road(Gintaro Kelias)

The piece is in four short movements, each taking its title from one of the houses that line the main streets in Pompeii. Borrowing Mussorgsky's 'Promenade' from Pictures at an Exhibition, the piece has twowalkers (violas) who take the listener with them onto the Via Della Fortuna, then lead them from house to house. Several amber objects were found within the houses, linking Pompeii with Lithuania. The lastmovement returns to the House of the Ancient Hunt then heads northwards along the Gintaro Kelias. The jubilant closing music refers to an earlier work (Geda's Weavings) based on Lithuanian folksongs.

SKU: FG.55011-618-4

ISBN 9790550116184.

Juhani Nuorvala's (b. 1961) Variations ex Bene quondam for string orchestra was commissioned by the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra in 2017. Collaboration with the musicians led to experiments with microtonality. The work is based on a late medieval song from the Finnish collection Piae cantiones (Pious songs). The song is processed with various means of contemporary music. It also meets the New Age of California - the musical scene of the teenaged composer. The duration of the work is 25 minutes, and the performance material is available for hire from the publisher.

SKU: SU.29120050

Chamber Suite, for string orchestra, is an adaptation of Mason’s 2nd String Quartet. The addition of the double bass adds more harmonic richness in all the movements and is particularly apparent in the lush 2nd movement. Chamber Suite offers string orchestras rhythmic and technical challenges but with a very accessible language. This is music that appeals to wide range of audiences with its energy and unique, coherent musical language of its own. It keeps the listener’s interest right to the end. The 1st movement engages from the opening bar with fast paced, off kilter 7/8 tutti rhythms and sharp-edged harmonies. This is a kind of musical caffeine living between tonal and polytonalism with rich, sliding chords and a haunting middle section reminiscent of Armenian folks tunes. The 2nd movement offers emotional storytelling with clear tonality but with moments of more complex stacked harmonies and tension. The 3rd movement is lively with raw energy. Voices are rapidly interchanged in a dance of weaving motivic development until the satisfying rush of notes to the end.string orchestra Duration: 15' Composed: 2020 Published by: Todd Mason Performance materials available on rental:.

SKU: HL.153114

UPC: 888680095109. 9x12 inches.

Commissioned by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, this concertino was originally conceived as a part of a complete educational concertprogram. Four concertini, each featuring a different instrumental family within the chamber orchestra, are played in succession to demonstrate the characteristic sounds of those instruments. The music is thematically related but not identical to the Concertino for Chamber Orchestra (parts available on rental from the publisher), which serves as the program's closer, demonstrating all of theorchestral sections playing together. This program is suggested by the composer for orchestra concerts, however each instrumental concertino can be performed individually and stands quite effectively on its own as a short chamber recital piece.

SKU: BO.B.3292

English comments:
This is the definitive version of Biogenesis, a piece that Cervello had written in 1976, together with his friend Jorge Wagensberg, and which was awarded the First Prize at the Spanish Ministry for Education and Science's Permanent Composition and Musical Research Competition. The new version was made at 1984-85 Lux et umbra is written for a string group consisting of four first and four second violins, three violas, three cellos and a double bass. The conceptual battle between darkness and light is represented by the instability between the notes B and C, and by the compartmentation of the group of fifteen strings into divisi that provide an independent arrangement for each instrument, thus bestowing great substance upon the texture of the music. A cello cadence emerges from a slow and straightforward beginning. A process of contrasts then begins, culminating in a molto vivace passage of a scherzando nature, which alludes to the Baroque concerti grossi. The music once again plays with chiaroscuro until reaching its climax, from which point the conclusion slowly begins, establishing itself in the high register until fading away. The work was first performed at Barcelona's Palau de la Musica by the English Chamber Orchestra, directed by Enrique Garcia Asensio, in 1987. That same year, in the newspaper El Pais, the observations of the composer and critic Francesc Taverna-Bech paid tribute to the work's intelligence as regards the use of and search for instrumental resources (in this case, string instruments, about which Cervello knows a great deal), the skill involved in endowing the lyrical line with tension, and a singular touch that confers formal essence upon the musical discourse. In La Vanguardia, Jordi Llovet wrote that this is a work in which, as is the case with most of Cervello's compositions, the listener finds something covertly religious, a mysterious secret, a transcendence linked to the origins of communication requiring more than a single being, which provides excitement. In 1990, when the Orquesta de Granada (Orchestra of Granada) performed the work at Barcelona's Grec festival, the critic Cesar Calmell opined, in the same newspaper, that inch by inch, surely and imperturbably, Cervello built up a perfect world that reflects the image of the craftsman who, so astonished at the delights of his trade, is unable to do anything but turn the very backdrop of tragedy into something pleasant. Lux et umbra was recorded by the Orchestra Estatal of the Hermitage, conducted by Alexis Soriano (CD SA01210 Fundacion Autor). --Xavier Casanoves Danes Music critic

Comentarios del Espanol:
Se trata de la version definitiva de Biogenesis, obra que habia escrito en 1976 en colaboracion con su amigo Jorge Wagensberg y que obtuvo el Primer Premio, en el ano de su creacion, en el Concurso Permanente de Composicion e Investigacion Musical del Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia. La nueva version fue realizada en 1984-85. Lux et umbra esta escrita para un grupo de cuerda integrado por cuatro primeros violines, cuatro segundos, tres violas, tres violoncelos y un contrabajo. El combate filosofico entre la oscuridad y la luz lo lleva a cabo la inestabilidad entre las notas si y do y la compartimentacion del grupo de quince cuerdas en unos divisi que llegan a una escritura independiente para cada instrumento, otorgando una gran importancia a la textura sonora. De un principio lento y descarnado emerge una cadencia del violonchelo. A continuacion da comienzo un proceso de contrastes que culmina en un pasaje molto vivace de caracter scherzando que alude a los concerti grossi del barroco. La musica juega de nuevo con el claroscuro hasta llegar a la cumbre sonora iniciando el final lentamente que se instala en el registro agudo hasta desvanecerse. La estreno en el Palau de la Musica de Barcelona la English Chamber Orchestra en el ano 1987 bajo la direccion de Enrique Garcia Asensio. Ese mismo ano, en el periodico El Pais, el compositor y critico Francesc Taverna-Bech reconocia en sus comentarios la inteligencia en el uso y la busqueda de los recursos instrumentales -en este caso la cuerda, de la que Cervello es profundo conocedor-, la destreza para revestir de tension la linea lirica y un tacto particular para conferir entidad formal al discurso sonoro. Jordi Llovet, en La Vanguardia, escribia que en esta obra, se encuentra, como en la mayor parte de la produccion de Cervello, algo secretamente religioso, un arcano misterioso, una trascendencia vinculada a los origenes de la comunicacion impracticable con el ser unico que resulta apasionante. En el ano 1990, cuando la Orquesta de Granada la toco en el Grec de Barcelona, era el critico Cesar Calmell quien, en el mismo periodico consideraba que Cervello construyo palmo a palmo, segura e imperturbablemente, un mundo perfecto que refleja la imagen del artesano que, de tan admirado con las delicias de su oficio, no puede hacer otra cosa que convertir en agradable el fondo mismo de la tragedia. Lux et umbra esta grabada por la Orquesta Estatal del Hermitage, dirigida por Alexis Soriano (CD SA01210 Fundacion Autor). --Xavier Casanoves Danes Critico musical.