SKU: FG.55011-642-9

ISBN 9790550116429.

Kalevi Aho's Piano Concerto No. 2 is scored for a string orchestra comprising just twenty players. The first performance took place at the concluding concert of the 2003 Mantta Music Festival, in Vilppula Church on 29th June. The soloist was Antti Siirala and the strings of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra were conducted by Osmo Vanska. The demanding piano writing is primarily a consequence of Siirala's remarkable command of the 'Beethovenian-Lisztian-Brahmsian' pianistic tradition. At times the piano part is lean and linear, but the work also contains multi-layered, full-toned piano textures and massive rolling octaves. The concerto requires great artistry on the part of the performer. The Second Piano Concerto lasts roughly half an hour and comprises three untitled movements played without a break. The first movement and the finale are extremely fast; these outer movements contain plenty of playful music. The slow second movement is more serious in tone, and its piano texture is very ample. The difficult cadenza at the end of the finale brings more serious emotions to the coda as well.

SKU: HL.14033619

This overture is the opening of the 146th Church Cantata. It is scored for full string orchestra with organ obbligato and is the original form of the first movement of the later and better known Piano Concerto in D minor. In its early form this work lends itself more readily to a modern piano adaptation than in the later Concerto form. Wir mussen durch viel trubsal in das reich Gottes eingehen.

SKU: FG.55011-633-7

ISBN 9790550116337.

Victoria Yagling (1946-2011) was born in Russia and lived in Finland since 1990. Her long career as a cellist served as an excellent accompaniment to the composition she began at an early age. For 11 years she was a cello student of Mstislav Rostropovich at the Moscow Conservatory and Dmitry Kabalevsky and Tikhon Khrennikov taught her composition. Yagling won the first prize in the Gaspar Cassado Cello Competition and the following year the second prize in the Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition. Her solo engagements took her to countless countries. She has also taught at several international music courses and master classes and was often a jury member for international cello competitions. Yagling left a profilic oeuvre, and the three cello concertos are her main works. Her other orchestral works include Finnish Notebook, Lyrical Preludes and the Suite for Cello and String Orchestra. She has also composed solo works (e.g. the Suite for Cello Solo No. 1 chosen as an obligatory piece for the 7th Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1982), chamber works, including two string quartets, and vocal music. Her expressive, romantically orientated style is Russian in spirit and has grown out of the soil provided by Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Yagling was a skillful pianist, able to master works of such a level as Chopin's Etudes. The amount of her piano works surpasses five hours of music.

SKU: BT.WA-4094-401

English.

Sir Edward Elgar was born in Worcester in 1857. Until the outstanding success of the 'Enigma' Variations in 1899, he was considered a 'provincial' composer - and a largely self taught one at that.In the earlier part of Elgar's career as a composer, he wrote several short pieces which became very popular indeed. Chanson de Matin is one such, the second of a pair (the other being Chanson de Nuit), which carried his name far and wide before his larger orchestra works appeared. It was published in several versions at once: for string orchestra, for small orchestra, for violin and piano and so on - so it is almost impossible to say, with any degree of certainty, which was theoriginal version. This arrangement makes a useful addition to the repertoire for piano.

SKU: BT.WA-4002-401

English.

This 'Air' comes from Bach’s Orchestral Suite No.3 in D major. Its popular title 'Air on the G String' is from an arrangement for violin and piano by the great German violinist August Wilhelmj who played most of the melody notes on the “G” string of the violin. This arrangement for piano will be an ideal piece for use during wedding services.

SKU: FG.55011-554-5

ISBN 9790550115545.

Harri Wessman (b. 1949) is interested in all aspects of music that may be expressive, without in any way ignoring the possibilities of melody. He himself describes his harmonic method as a kind of contrapuntally treated jazz harmony. During recent years pedagogic music has become a more and more central area in his output with an emphasis on creating repertoire for budding musicians, from beginners to young professionals. I don't write children's music. Stylistically I write in the same way as for professionals; technically, the pieces just have to be easier to play. Concertino No. 2 for piano and chamber orchestra was commissioned by a Finnish press house Yhtyneet Kuvalehdet Oy for the inauguration of their new office building in 1987. According to the original plan the concertino was to be used in an advertising film of the company. A melody with wide arch which can be heard in the midpoint of the piece, first played by the orchestra and then repeated with the piano, was intended to be the theme song of the film. The 10 minutes duration and small orchestra (flute, oboe, clarinet and strings) makes this one movement piece suitable also for young orchestra players.