SKU: HL.14035889

ISBN 9788759859285. English-Danish.

I - Lento
II - Imposante
III - Andante

Programme Note

In my early television remembrance I recall a broadcast with Samuel Beckett, one of the fathers of the absurd play and drama. At one time Beckett looked the viewer (the camera) in the eye and said:'What! - is the Word'. I have not since been able to forget it, obviously, having borrowed this ambiguous sentence as title for this short cello sonata.

The fact that it is conceived as a unity is obvious from the fact that the two outer movements are closely related. The long, immediately recognizable melodic line which dominates the first movement appears in the third movement aswell, first in an inverted version and then almost identical to its original appearance, only shorter.
In contrast, the middle movement is a fast one, constantly and intensely on the move, with many changes of pulse and meters, as well as large melodic leaps. And while the outer movements each are composed as a single melodic line, the middle movement makes extensive use of the cello as a polyphonic instrument employing lots of chords, double stops and flageolet effects.

Per Norgard (2010).

SKU: HL.48025289

ISBN 9783793144267. UPC: 196288172130. 9.0x12.0x0.045 inches.

I am Cello is one of several solo pieces by means of which the Australian-based composer remained in contact with her interpreters all over the world during the time of the coronavirus pandemic, composing and communicating via video and streaming. It was written for the cellist Benedict Kloeckner and produced by him at the SWR Studio Kaiserslautern in autumn 2020 and released on CD by Brilliant Classics the following year. The requirement to write something short to be played between the Bach Solo Suites alongside the music of other composers quickly gave rise to the idea of a piece that “is almost a song and tells almost a story. It is also almost a waltz, but a slow one. I see this piece like a flower bulb that opens up over the course of 2-3 minutes,” says Elena Kats-Chernin.

SKU: BT.9781408114629

ISBN 9781408114629. English.

Now in a third edition, Abracadabra Cello has a fresh, contemporary new look and is the perfect book for pupil and teachers.

This title offers an identical selection of repertoire to the other booksin the Abracadabra Strings series, so they can be used in any combination for group or whole class lessons and mixed ensemble performances. Used alone, they remain ideal for individual tuition.

With tunes you know andwant to play, carefully graded in 20 learning steps, this new edition of the popular tutor also includes duets, trios and teacher's parts. Clear fingering and bowing diagrams and concise theory explanations help to teachthefundamentals of the instrument, and each new technical aspect is reinforced by several pieces using that particular technique.

Abracadabra Cello now also includes two CDs of performance and backing tracks, featuringselected orchestral backings.

SKU: HL.48025036

UPC: 196288020813.

The piece was commissioned by a colleague Brett Dean of the Berliner Philharmoniker, the violist Walter Kussner, as part of a CD project with works for solo viola in 1998/99. Since then, the composer himself has played it himself countless times in concerts andlectures. Here it is now in a congenial adaptation for cello. The title Intimate Decisions comes from a painting by Dean's wife, theAustralian painter Heather Betts, and indicates the private nature of the music. According to Dean, writing a piece for a solo string instrument was strangely similar to writing a personal letter or an intense conversation with a close friend. The piece begins with a short series of individual intervals of a rather intangible character, followed by a more emphatic motif of a minor sixth and minor ninth, and later a chain of harmonies whirring down the lower strings. The various developing characters go through an increasingly decisive, ultimately dramatic conversation, in rhapsodic alternation with flighty virtuosity, but also calm and delicacy, only to fade away like an echo at the end.