Work for Chamber Ensemble dating from 1989.The composer writes: The Title SHADOWLAND refers on the one hand to a blurred ‘Landscape’ of shadows where small shadows are formed behind other shadows and where the outlines are constantly disintegrating. On the other hand the title refers to the fanciful and unreal landscapes I felt in the music while I was writing it. SHADOWLAND has four movements with proportions 4-7-4-3. These proportions can be found on various levels from the smallest cell to the largest form. The first movement is divided into four parts which have exactly the same proportions as the whole pjece and behind the fastrunning melodies and trills thatdominate the whole movement one can hear in the second third and fourth parts anticipations of the second third and fourth movements respectively. The second movement begins at the edge of silence with almost unperceptible glissandi and indistinct chorales. Gradually the hushed landscape is drowned out by sudden expressive melodic outbursts and ends with violent dance rhythms. The third movement is built up of clouds of staccato tones and is a further development of the pointillistic ideas from CLAIROBSCUR. In th last movement the horn plays a long soloistic melody line which the other instruments imitate and echo. These echoes swamp the horn line from time to time. SHADOWLAND was commissioned by and dedicated to The London Sinfonietta.

Score for this piece which was comissioned by London Brass and first performed in 1992.Quoting composer: The piece was completed without title on 12th August 1992. A title once considered was Canons Chorales and Waltzes but this was dropped since there was only one canon (the opening) and only genuine waltz (apart from a passage towards the end which superimposes the canon over a waltz rhythm). The following day I read the paper that John Cage had died - the day I finished writing. For this reason but mainly because Cage was the most revolutionary practical music thinker of the 20th century this piece is dedicated to him. His influence on my music may be perceived underthe 'very un-Cagein' surface: though stylistically there may be little in For John Cage that may have been to his taste I hope he would at least have appreciated its diversity its non-simultaneous multiplicity.Parts are available on hire or special order. Duration 15 minutes.

Par RHEINBERGER JOSEF GABRIEL. Volume 31 contains, among other works, the Piano Quartet, which was enthusiastically received by the critics in Rheinberger’s time: “The themes are noble, with significant content, the motivic development is rich and interesting, above all free from anything resembling a mould … and such a healthy musical wind blows through the entire work that I believe I am not mistaken if I forsee for this work a great success. ” This is how a contemporary critic reviewed the work. Indeed, op. 38 proceeded to become the most successful of Rheinberger’s chamber music works during his lifetime. The Sextet op. 191b is an effective arrangement of his Piano Trio No. 4 op. 191, for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn and piano. All works are also available in separate editions./ Répertoire / Ensemble de Chambre

Work for High Voice Alto Flute Horn Harp and Viola. Text: TS Eliot.Quoting Wood: 'I had for many years wanted to set Marina and the opportunity came to start work on it in mid August 1988. About a year later havingcompleted in the meantime the Horn Trio Opus 29 and the Cantata Opus 30 I turned back to the drafts of Marina and completed it on 10 September 1989. It is dedicated to the memory of my daughter who was murdered in Bavaria on 10September 1988.Marina is the heroine of Shakespeare’s Pericles a play remarkable for one of the most moving of all Shakespeare’s recognition scenes a dramatic situation which never failed to draw out his deepest expressionof feeling. This is the re-meeting of an ageing father with his long-lost daughter born at sea during the storm in which her mother is thought to have died and long believed to be dead herself. Eliot transforms the twocharacter’s mutual recognition into a transfigured mediation and surrounds it with a wealth of mainly marine imagery. In the words of Helen Gardener these images are: The prelude to a moment of ecstatic recognition. The voyagein Marina discovers in the ocean anisland and sees again a beloved face. Its theme is not the immortality of the soul but resurrection.

Par ELIA ALESSIO. Commissioned by I Solisti della Scala for the CD ''Octet'', a project conceived by the conductor Andrea Vitello, which includes also the first recording in the performance of I Solisti della Scala of the Octet by Stravinsky and the first world recording of the Octet by Peter Eötvös, the Octet by Alessio Elia is described by the Italian musicologist Guido Barbieri in these terms: ''In the Octet written in 2016 by Alessio Elia, the musical elements, or their strongly contrasted combination, significantly shape the structure of the piece. The utilization of different scales - a technique defined by the composer as ''polysystemism'' - further emphasizes his concept of sound as a phenomenal entity.'' / Date parution : 2022-07-23/ Répertoire / Ensemble de Chambre