SKU: BR.EB-32111

The first edition of a forgotten treasure

ISBN 9790004186763. 9 x 12 inches.

There are many composers of whom it is said today that they had gone back in time or had composed against contemporary taste. Today, the question arises, though, as to what of value is to be extracted, rediscovered, or re-edited. Camillo Schumann (1872-1946) is one of these nearly forgotten composers. His works are still largely unknown today. Schumann's tonal language combines the Brahmsian sound scape with the grand late romantic Liszt school. His piano pieces range even to sounds reminiscent of Rachmaninoff and are of tremendous power and virtuosity. The pronounced and inventive melody makes the works the testimony of a composer who has not yet come to the fore. His two sonatas for clarinet and piano have hitherto remained completely unknown. This is astonishing, for they are on the level of the sonatas of Johannes Brahms, who probably contributed the most essentially to this genre. Surfacing as a special treasure from the estate of the Saxon musicologist and collector Harald Schurz were the autographs of both clarinet sonatas, now to be published for the first time. Remember falling in love with the expressive qualities of the Brahms sonatas? You can rekindle that feeling with these works by Camillo Schumann. Commentators have compared Schumann's works not only to Brahms, but also to Liszt and Rachmaninoff. Run to your shop and order now.(Gregory Barrett, The Clarinet)

The first edition of a forgotten treasure.

SKU: ST.C143

ISBN 9790570811434.

Alexander Konstantinovich Glazunov (1865-1936) trained under Rimsky- Korsakov and became the most illustrious Russian composer and conductor immediately succeeding Tchaikovsky. Glazunov’s close affinity with the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, of which institution he would later become Director for more than two decades, placed him ideally to assist in the Institute’s transition to the Petrograd Conservatory in the immediate wake of the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. For the last six years of his life, Glazunov left the USSR, feeling hemmed in by propagandist restrictions and at the same time out of kilter with the Modernist movement.

He lived in exile for a time, touring the USA, before eventually settling in Paris, though his stoical brand of Russian Romanticism never waned. Despite being partly remembered for having taught Shostakovich, Glazunov was never known as a revolutionary composer, more inclined to align himself with 19th century ideologies than with the thrusting new compositional paths forged by Prokofiev and others. Indeed, the nationalistic movement so successfully espoused by Balakirev found a new energy in Glazunov’s hands, and he discovered an opulence of scale which leaned more in the direction of Borodin.

There can be no doubting Glazunov’s technical mastery, which successfully drew together contrapuntal, lyrical and virtuosic skills, and which were admired by the likes of Liszt. Glazunov steered a steady course at a time when it was most sorely needed; one need only hear the marvellous Violin Concerto in A minor to experience the full power and authority of his writing, though he possessed an enviable touch with more intimate forms too, such as those readily to be heard in these three charming Miniatures Op.42, originally composed for piano.
Clarinet and Piano
Transcribed by Mark Tanner
Grades 6 & 7 (Trinity Grades 6 & 7 syllabuses)
Former Spartan Press Cat. No.: SP1360.