SKU: PR.114417610

ISBN 9781491107904. UPC: 680160636051. 9x12 inches.

SONATA CHO-CHO-SAN(Based on themes from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly)In the spirit of the great 19th-century opera fantasies for woodwinds, Michael Webster has created a concert trio on the many great arias from Puccini's Madama Butterfly. However, as its name implies, Sonata Cho-Cho-San is not the typical virtuosic operatic potpourri. Rather, it follows the plot, resembling a sonata mirroring Puccini's use of recurring and developing themes. Webster makes the most of the winds as versatile performers - equally suited to deliver Puccini's beautiful vocal writing, and to ornament and embroider the poignant themes in symphonic style. For advanced performers._______________________________________Text from the scanned back cover:Born in 1944, Michael Webster made his New York recital debutat Town Hall in 1968 with his eminent father, Beveridge Webster, as pianist. In the same year, he won the Young Concert Artists International Competition and succeeded his teacher, Stanley Hasty, as Principal Clarinet in the Rochester Philharmonic, a position he held for twenty years. Webster has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the 92nd Street Y, with the Tokyo, Cleveland, Muir, Ying, Enso, and Dover String Quartets, and with the festivals of Marlboro, Santa Fe, Norfolk, Chamber Music Northwest, Angel Fire, Steamboat Springs, Park City, Sitka, Kapalua, Bowdoin, Orcas Island, Skaneateles, La Musica di Asolo, Stratford, Victoria, and Domaine Forget.As soloist he has appeared with many orchestras, including the Philadelphia Orchestra under Aaron Copland and the Boston Pops under John Williams. His travels have taken him as performer and teacher to most of the 50 states, as well as Canada, Mexico,Puerto Rico, Central and South America, Europe, Japan, China, Australia, and New Zealand. Webster was Acting Principal Clarinet of the San Francisco Symphony, and has served on the clarinet and/or conducting faculties of New England Conservatory, Boston University, University of Michigan, and the Eastman School, from which he earned his three degrees. Currently he is Professor of Music at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and Artistic Director of the Houston Youth Symphony, which has won multiple first prizes in national performance competitions.With his wife, flutist Leone Buyse, and pianist Robert Moeling, he plays in the Webster Trio, which has recorded his arrangements on Tour de France and World Wide Webster for Crystal Records. Otherarrangements were recorded for Nami and Camerata Tokyo in Japan with pianist Chizuko Sawa. Webster has also recorded for Albany, Arabesque, Beaumont, Bridge, Centaur, CRI, and New World. He has played at many ClarinetFests for the International Clarinet Association and written a column entitled “TeachingClarinet” in The Clarinet Magazine since 1998. Michael Webster is a Buffet artist-clinician, performing on Buffet clarinets exclusively.

SKU: FG.55011-746-4

ISBN 9790550117464.

Einar Englund’s (1916-1999) Flute Concerto (1985) is beyond dispute one of his greatest works. Its finest attributes are its rich melodic invention, colourful instrumentation and immediate message. Add to these its rewarding solo part, and the result is truly one of his best concertos – and works. He himself did not hesitate to regard it as such. It was premiered in Helsinki on September 16, 1985, having been completed at Ljugarn on the Swedish island of Gotland at the end of June. The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Leif Segerstam, and the soloist was the concerto’s dedicatee, Mikael Helasvuo.

The Flute Concerto opens with a Ritornello in which the flute's playful, dance-like passages make sharp contrast with the orchestra's heroic stance. In the mellow Canzona which follows, the flute plays rhapsodically over repetitive orchestral figures. The work's action-packed finale hints at parody in its military march-like opening, but also gives rein to the lyricism already familiar from the second movement.

This product includes the solo flute part and the piano reduction. The orchestral study score (composer’s manuscript) is available for sale (product number 9790550117471). The performance material is available for hire from the publisher.

Duration: c. 23’
Instrumentation of the orchestra: 3(III=picc)222–4330–14–harpsichord(+celesta)–hp–str.