SKU: IS.BC7076EM

ISBN 9790365070763.

It was 1995 when I had the fortune to listen to the freshly published recording of the suites performed by Mstislav Rostropovich. I would have given anything to be able to play them, and this was what inspired me to study the bass clarinet. The series of diverse emotions which I subsequently experienced made me see Music in a completely new way. I began learning them slowly, inevitably adapting the text. As I discovered their educational value, the knowledge of harmonic structures, forms and stylistic features gradually evolved within me. Over 20 years I have studied various editions and listened to the meaning which these suites have had for many famous performers. I pleasantly discovered the commendable work of other clarinettists who in turn have dedicated themselves to approaching this composer with the bass clarinet. The objective of this version isn’t to impose conditions on how to play the suites. We carried out unique research into the coherence of the text, based on the manuscripts of Anna Magdalena Bach and Johann Peter Kellner. The choice to remove any type of articulation and agogic was made in order to encourage the development of personal interpretation, which obviously requires a fundamental investigation of the sources. This edition comes with 4 versions of the suite. The reason behind producing four versions (which are in different keys and tones) is because every musician has their own tastes and tendencies. Personally, I prefer the bass clef transposed to B flat because I find the bass clef to be the most appropriate for the spirit of the low instrument.

SKU: HL.48025211

UPC: 196288133391. 9.0x12.0x0.067 inches.

With his opera Hamlet, which premiered in Glyndebourne in 2017, the composer Brett Dean added a new, modern analysis to the certainly numerous artistic ones of the famous subject - with enormous success, as the press reviews and many subsequent stage productions attested. The composer's and his librettist Matthew Jocelyn's fruitful examination of Shakespeare's text material yielded both the full-length opera and several concertante “by-products”: And once I played Ophelia for soprano and string quartet, From Melodious Lay, an orchestral poem with solo soprano and solo tenor, the suite Gertrude Fragments for mezzo-soprano and guitar, and Confessio for solo bass clarinet. Confessio describes an appearance by Hamlet's uncle Claudius: In the castle chapel he deliversa short monologue – rather a reflection than a prayer or confession. Claudius reveals to himself the deep fear of the consequences of his murderous deed - and a vague, though hardly justifiable, hope for mercy.