SKU: CF.V2504
ISBN 9780825898310. UPC: 798408098315. Frederic Sharaf, Sorcha Cribben-Merrill.
Sharaf was moved to write this tribute to all involved in the Boston Marathon massacre—those who were victims, those who died, and those who showed the best of humanity in the aftermath. He imagines the heartbreaking beauty of a dying woman, praying for peace and forgiveness, even of those who perpetrated the event.
SKU: AY.V3222PM
ISBN 9790543573802.
Cidade do Sul, or just O Sul, is a piece for soprano and piano composed in 2000 by request of the Maestro Jose Luis de Delas, with whom I studied during that time in Alcala de Henares (Madrid). The poem's title is Cidade do Sul and it belongs to the book Beira Norte from Xavier Baixeras, an important Galician poet and also a friend. One of the most important things to take into account for its performance is what the poem says, because that is the reason for the accompaniment to be so simple. The difficulty of the piece is medium-high due to the rhythmic difficulties of both performers and also to the melodic difficulties (with big intervals) that the soprano finds.
SKU: HL.48024663
ISBN 9783793142171. UPC: 888680951511. 9.0x12.0x2.92 inches.
Jacques Offenbach's more than 100 stage works are an endless treasure trove of vocal highlights with highly different musical moods and lyrical themes. To mark the 200th birthday of the great composer in 2019, which is at the same time the year of the 20th anniversary of the Offenbach Edition Keck OEK, the editor and Offenbach expert Jean-Christophe Keck has assembled a selection of arias. The four-part collection arranged according to voice category shows a rather unknown, romantic side of Offenbach. Apart from rediscovered works and first editions, however, the collection is not complete without some of his unrivalled hits. Among the characters figuring in the soprano volume are not only title figures like the Beautiful Helen, the Grand Duchess of Gerolstein or the Princess of Trébizonde but also figures from more serious operas: Armgard from Les Fées du Rhin or Elsbeth from Fantasio. The volume presents stage works, including excerpts from Barkouf, Les Bergers or Le Roi Carotte, that are accessible for performances only as of recently. Romantic Offenbach is aimed at fully trained and budding professionals as well as at Offenbach fans of every shade and colour, providing repertoire pieces for recitals, studies or private music-making.
SKU: HL.49046394
ISBN 9781540086570. UPC: 840126910186. 9.0x12.0 inches.
In 2010 I lived in Rome as a Villa Massimo scholarship holder. During my time there I came across a few poems by Michelangelo that touched me a lot and soon had the plan to set some of them to music. But I wanted to combine it with something contemporary - just like in Rome the old and the new always meet. The poet Marcel Beyer, whom I met in Rome, then wrote the cycle of poems Die Grillmeisterin for me, which takes up many motifs from the Michelangelo texts (fire, tears, getting burned, loneliness, etc.). I then alternately combined this cycle of poems with the Michelangelo poems. The Italian songs have a sometimes melancholy, sometimes dramatic character, while the German songs are rather bizarre, sometimes even humorous. Despite these contrasts in character, there are also many musical connections between the German and Italian songs. Individual motifs and chord sequences sometimes return in completely different contexts, and there is even a direct connection between the first and last song, in that the same vocal line is underlaid with a completely different text. This creates a musical framework that holds the very heterogeneous selection of texts together. -Anno Schreier.
SKU: BT.ALHE31629
French.
French composer, Pierre Boulez (b. 1925) is best known for his serialist, experimental and electronic compositions. However, his work for Soprano, Mixed Choir and Piano Reduction, Le Soleil DesEaux also remains regularly performed. Having studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Olivier Messiaen, Boulez soon began his own creative experiments. Amongst his earlier works was hiscantata, Le Soleil Des Eaux, composed in the late 1940s. The work has since been revised many times. Based on poems by René Char, Le Soleil Des Eaux is atonal, exploitingmanytechniques. For advanced choirs and Soprano soloists, Boulez's Le Soleil Des Eaux provides a challenging yet riveting performance work.
