SKU: BT.SCHEE825

Piano. Brahms, J.

SKU: HL.233151

ISBN 9788759886427. 10.0x14.5 inches. English.

Piano solo part for Paganini Variations - Piano Concerto No.3 by Poul Ruders (2014). Score available: WH32201 Programme note: In 1999 my friend, American guitar virtuoso David Starobin, wanted me to write a concerto for guitar and orchestra. It quickly dawned on me, that this commission presented a golden opportunity to contribute to the time-honoured tradition of composing a series of variations on Nicolo Paganini's famous 24th Caprice for violin solo, a work which itself is a set of variations. The 16 bar (with the first 4 bars repeated) theme is not particularly sophisticated or intricate, but its inherent simplicity and logic just grow on you, almost to the point ofdistraction - and the secret behind it being hauled through the wringer by composers as disparate as Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninoff and Lutoslawski is perhaps found in its - what I'll call, with a quick nervous look over my shoulder: brilliant banality. You can do anything with that tune, it'll always be recognizable and just there, however much you maul it. The piece (subtitled Guitar Concerto no 2) was written pretty quickly, premiered and subsequently recorded for Bridge Records with David and the Odense Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jan Wagner, and everybody was happy. But the story didn't end there, and it must be the ultimate proof of the durability of the theme, not to mention the flexibility and far-sightedness of David Starobin , when he 14 years later suggested why not transcribe the solo part for piano?. The idea appealed to me immediately. One thing was clear from the beginning: the new version could in no way sound like a transcription. My aim was to end up with a solo-part sounding like were it the one-and-only, the real thing, if you like. The orchestral score remains exactly the same in both cases. Both versions, the two Paganini Variations, are comparable to a set of twins, not quite identical, but almost. And both each others's equal. Poul Ruders.

SKU: PR.160002250

ISBN 9781491138090. UPC: 680160693481.

Powerfully expansive and meticulously detailed, Vittorio Giannini’s VARIATIONS ON A CANTUS FIRMUS is a major work of American piano literature whose architecture furthers the monumental ground bass forms of Bach and Brahms, with harmony and textures akin to Scriabin and Rachmaninoff. Ingeniously constructed, the 24 variations are grouped into four movements: Moderato, Aria, Toccata, and the intriguingly-titled final Interlude which continuously reimagine the theme in a variety of characters, moods, and colors.

SKU: BR.EB-9355

ISBN 9790004188194. 9 x 12 inches.

Little Cadenzas, Canons and Preludes for Pianoforte, an album of 36 piano miniatures in all keys of the circle of fifths and in church modes, as well as two preludes by Eusebius Mandyczewski (1857-1929) that modulate through all keys, are presented here for the first time in print. Mandyczewski, who went down in music history as a Brahms friend, editor and archivist of the Vienna Musikverein, composed numerous vocal and piano works, including twelve Orthodox liturgies and two cycles of variations on themes by George Frideric Handel. The album, a birthday present from the composer to his twelve-year-old daughter Virginia, was written in the middle of the First World War and was not premiered publicly until a century later - after the manuscript was found in a Ukrainian library - at the Mandyczewski Festival in Chernivtsi (Ukraine) in 2017. Mandyczewski shows himself here as a master of the small form and counterpoint, but also as a demanding teacher - and so the pieces, once reserved for his daughter, will now be made accessible to a wider circle of young musicians to enjoy.