If Ye Love Me by John Tavener was commissioned by Manchester International Festival (MIF Creative) with thanks to the support of the MIF Commissioning Circle. In If Ye LoveMe there are subtle echo-effects between three String Quartets which are complimented by an upper Voice choir.

Par FREEMAN ALEX. Alex Freeman found initial inspiration for his string quartet (2015) in a series of photographs a geologist friend showed him of en échelon veins in rock formations. The open strings punctuated with pizzicato unisons that begin the single-movement work call to mind something crystalline and shimmering, which is immediately infused with tumbling lyrical lines in something of a rapid caccia technique throughout. The middle of the work becomes more suspended in slower material loosely based on a technique of prolation canon, comprises layers of free, expressive, lyrical, and even elegiac music moving at different speeds. As the work concludes, the materials converge in a rhythmically pulsating stasis and an almost chorale-like statement. Duration: c. 13' This product includes the score and the parts (A4 sized). American-Finnish composer Alex Freeman (b.1972) has established himself among the foremost composers of choral music in Finland. A dedicated citizen of his musical community, a teacher, and a choral singer himself, he composes music that reflects an appreciation for a wide range of aesthetics and a passion for communicating with listeners and performers. In his choral works, in particular, we find music that aims to be sonorous, melodic, and resonant, but is always crafted to carefully avoid the cliches that can burden conventional tonality. His instrumental works run the gamut: a cantata with orchestra based on poetry of Whitman; a significant body of solo piano works that reveal deep roots in everything from austere absolute music to soaring elegaic rhetoric (see Albany Records, Inner Voice); his chamber work Blueshift (Navona Records), which is a kind of paean to Reich and Adams in miniature; open-ended modular works, like various iterations of his Slow All Clocks for electronic media, solo clarinet, and mixed choirs of kanteles; and, recently, some new directions in microtonal music. / Date parution : 2022-05-31/ Répertoire / Quatuor à Cordes

Three arrangements including Ave Verum Corpus and the Lacrimosa from the Requiem.During the year 1771 when Mozart was 15 years old he and his father Leopold were touring Italy which was at that time the most formidable citadel of the music world. In the following four years the young Mozart was received at the homes and villas of Italy's aristocracy. He met the most famous musicians of the time including Niccolo Piccinni operatic rival to Gluck and Padre Martini from whom he was to benefit from studies in counterpoint. He also met many noted male soprano singers and for one the celebrated Venanzio Rauzzini he wrote in 1773 the motet Exsultate Jubilate from whichcomes the well known Alleluia.At the end of his life only 19 years later in Vienna 1791 Mozart was very ill and working on a number of massive works such as the operas The Magic Flute and Titus also the Requiem. Titus was completed in 18 nerve-shattering days as it had to be performed in Prague in September 1791. At its premiere it was a complete flop. This affected the now overworked almost penniless composer's spirit and he returned to Vienna suffering from mental and physical exhaustion. Rest was denied him. The Magic Flute had to be finished for its premier on September 30th 1791. The task of the Requiem still faced him. In this weakened state Mozart thought that he was in fact writing his own requiem reading evil omens into the commissioning of the work. He thought someone had calculated the precise time of his death and was thus troubled with sombre thoughts. He completed the first two of the twelve parts. The next six parts were in an unfinished state and his manuscript ceased at the Lacrimosa. Süssmayer who was working closely with Mozart at the time was given the task of finishing the Requiem.Ave Verum Corpus is also one of his final works. It is a setting of an anonymous hymn written as a motet for Anton Stoll the choirmaster at Baden in June 1791.Mozart was a composer of great genius who

The sweeping melody line of Across The Vast Eternal Sky blends smoothly with a sense of symphonic chorale. The Silvestri text begins with the last words in Gjeilo's 2011 Tundra here painting a world of light. An excellent centerpiece work for high school and beyond and a sure audience pleaser! String quartet score and parts. Vocal score available separately (HL00117661).