Nadia Boulanger's Three Pieces for Viola and Piano transcribed from the original for Cello. Posterity has retained of Nadia Boulanger only her gifts as a virtuoso of the piano and organ her skill as a conductor (of vocal ensemble and orchestra) and most of all her incredible charisma as a teacher. For nearly sixty years 'Mademoiselle' made the most of her famous Wednesdays bringing rigour and passion to the training of several generations of musicians: among so many others Aaron Copland Leonard Bernstein Igor Markevitch Michel Legrand Witold Lutoslawski Astor Piazzolla Quincy Jones and John-Eliot Gardiner have all kept unforgettable memories of thesetimes.Was Nadia Boulanger wrong to let teaching music take precedence over her composing as Gabriel Fauré the great master she venerated believed? The publication of Three Pieces for Viola and Piano raises the question. This transcription of Three Pieces for cello and piano was composed between 1911 and 1913 and published by Heugel. The two initial pieces were originally written for organ: the first in E flat minor brings a moderate tempo to a melancholy cantilena with Romantic accents while the second in A minor exudes warmth and tenderness. The third piece (C sharp minor) most likely originally titled Danse espagnole heralds the Roaring Twenties with its restlessness and festive crackle. Together they emit a charm that is difficult to resist.

Novacek's virtuosic Perpetual Motion has been skilfully arranged for Viola with Piano accompaniment by Alan Arnold and so can now be performed and enjoyed by advancing and accomplished Violists alike.The solo Viola part is also included on a separate insert.

Finzi's well-loved and long-established clarinet repertoire piece idiomatically transcribed by Veronica Leigh Jacobs. Leigh Jacobs trained at London's Royal Academy of Music and has enjoyed a substantial career as both orchestral and chamber musician in the USA. An addition to the viola repertoire which will be welcomed by intermediate to advanced standard players alike.

For Viola and Piano this is the composer's first opused work. Premiered at the Wigmore Hall in July 1959 by Cecil Aronowitz and Margaret Kitchen.Wood: In 1957 I knew I had newly discovered the music of Schoenberg and hispupils and I knew at once that they were to show me the way forward for my music; as indeed they have ever since. The revelation was primarily an emotional experience for me and however imperfectly their influence wasreceived it was obviously reflected in the all-out chromaticism (new for me then) in the many chains of twelve notes or lesser chromatic formations (which do not here amount to serial working and have only rarely done sosince) in the characteristic harmonic and rhythmic formations the wide and sometimes angular intervals of the melodies and in general the introverted romanticism. Anyway I knew then that this was the sort of music that Ihenceforth would want to write and so I called these Variations my Opus One.The declamatory Introduction leads into the Theme heard on the viola. Six Variations follow of which No.3 is the most violent and No.4 the mostsustainedly lyrical. The recitative-like sixth variation leads into the Finale a more extended movement. The Theme returning on the piano leads to a climax at which there is a citation from Beethoven’s C minor Variations forpiano. Then their characteristics sequence of chords is heard on the piano as an accompaniment to the final statement of my own theme on the viola in the closing bars of the work.

Pendant les répétitions pour ' Schlussgesang ' pour alto et orchestre au Festival d'Aldeburgh de 1997, j'ai conçu le titre de cette composition actuelle, avec ses rimes internes, comme un moyen approprié de décrivant Tabea, l'altiste. Plus tard dans l'été, j'ai composé un Andante, avec une section plus rapide contrastée qui est le premier de ces trois pièces. Immédiatement après, j'ai ajouté un deuxième, un morceau de scherzo-like et pour une finale faite une transcription de la cinquième mouvement de Schlussgesang, écrit à la mémoire de mon professeur Olivier Messiaen et intitulé Kein Gedanke, nur ruhiger Schlaf (no sleep de réflexion, seulement tranquille), les mots prises à partir d'un fragment écrit dans un carnet de Franz Kafka. ' / Alto Et Piano