SKU: HL.978474

ISBN 9781638871361. UPC: 196288090922. 9.0x12.0x0.102 inches.

This one of a kind album pairs two of the most performed Ave Maria's for violin and piano, meticulously edited by Jascha Heifetz' protege, Endre Granat. The first of these is Schubert's melody, which was originally composed as a setting of a song from Walter Scott's popular narrative poem The Lady of the Lake, titled, “Ellen's Third Song” (Ellens dritter Gesang). The opening words and refrain of Ellen's song, namely “Ave Maria” (Latin for “Hail Mary”), may have led to the idea of adapting Schubert's melody as a setting for the full text of the traditional Roman Catholic prayer. The Latin version of the song is now so frequently used with Schubert's melody that it has led to the misconception that he originally wrote the melody as a setting for the “Ave Maria.” The second Ave Maria in this collection was created when Gounod famously improvised the melody over the background of J.S. Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C major, BWV 846, from The Well-Tempered Clavier. Gounod's beatiful improvisation was transcribed by his future father-in-law Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, which was published with the Bach keyboard accompaniment in 1835 under the title “Méditation sur le Premier Prélude de Piano de S. Bach.” Alongside Schubert's version, the Bach/Gounod Ave Maria has become a fixture at funerals, wedding masses, and quinceañeras. Both works have been recorded hundreds of times during the twentieth century.

SKU: HL.48180261

UPC: 888680846213. 9.75x12.5 inches.

G.F. Handel (1685-1759) is considered as one of the greatest composers to have ever lived. Therefore, when violinist, Georges Catherine arranged Short March for violin and piano, it was very well-received. G.F.Handel was a German-born baroque composer who spent the majority of his life in England. His works remain ever popular to this day and Catherine's transcription of Short March for violin and piano ensure that the composer's much loved works are more accessible. For all violinists, this Catherine arrangement of Handel's Short March is essential.

SKU: HL.50600872

8.25x11.75x0.077 inches.

The operas of Marius Felix Lange, especially “Snow White,” “The Canterville Ghost,” “Die Schneekönigin,” “Das Opernschiff oder Am Südpol, denkt man, ist es heisse” have been incredibly successful. Many of his operas have also been performed on foreign stages, including those in Switzerland and France. Other points of emphasis in Lange's work include orchestral compositions and Lieder. The American violinist Hilary Hahn had an unusual yet very clever idea in 2012 when she requested encore pieces from present-day composers. The cycle “In 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores” were consecutively premiered by the violinist until the end of the 2012/13 season and recorded on CD. Amongst the submissions selected by Hilary Hahn during the course of an online contest, Marius Felix Lange's violin piece “Nutcracker's Nightmare” immediately ended up amongst the ten best-placed works. The title “Nutcracker's Nightmare” recalls E.T.A. Hoffmann's famous fairytale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King,” the gloomily imaginative story in which a wooden toy is awakened to life and has to fight against the powers of darkness.

SKU: LM.26850

ISBN 9790230968508.

In the Emilie's Eyes - For a blue note - You miss her - Ballad for Jodie - I prefer the Blue - To sing for heaven - He would like that - Michel lives in USA - Romantic tune - The End for Eddy - I'll be in the show - Ongobongo's star - Ernie is coming back - Modernesk - Just for Babe.

SKU: BA.BA11527-90

ISBN 9790260107946. 31 x 24.5 cm inches. Preface: Sandra Bergmannova.

Bohuslav Martinu wrote his First Violin Concerto in Paris in 1932-33, this work having been commissioned by the violin virtuoso Samuel Dushkin. However, it was never performed during the composer's lifetime and was even considered lost after his death. It was not until 1961 that musicologist and collector Hans Moldenhauer bought it from Boaz Piller, contrabassoonist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Moldenhauer approached Czech violinist Josef Suk, who gave the world premiere of the work with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Georg Solti in October 1973.

This piano reduction is based on the musical text of the first edition. The solo part has been revised by a leading Czech violinist and performer of Martinu's music.

* Major violin concerto of the 20th century
* New Foreword by Martinu scholar Sandra Bergmannova (Cz/Eng/Ger)

SKU: HL.14004213

9.0x12.0x0.175 inches.

Five Pieces for Violin and Orchestra was commissioned by Frederick Grinke and completed on 20 December 1961. The BBC Symphony Orchestra with Frederick Grinke (violin) and conducted by the composer, gave the first performance on 31 July 1962 at the Royal Albert Hall, London during the BBC Proms season. This work is so constructed that each piece is complete in itself and can be played separately, while at the same time the whole set of five constitutes a structural unit. A basic motif consisting of a rising semitone followed by a falling tone, and its inversion plays an important part in every piece. Thus the first piece, which is of a slow and meditative character, begins with this theme in the bass. It is also heard in the first entry of the solo part, and thereafter every episode is in some way derived from it. The next piece, a vigorous and strongly marked 'allegro', uses the semitone of the original figure as its starting point. A second theme appears, first on the horns and is later taken up by the solo violin, while a third section has the initial idea as its accompaniment. Next comes an extended scherzo in free form very closely based on initial motif. The fourth is a purely melodic piece containing allusions in its middle section to the basic figure. Here the strings only are used for accompaniment. In the first section, violas and cellos are divided in the middle section, and all the strings are used in the last, which is otherwise an almost exact repetition of the opening. The Finale is a lighter movement than the others, concerned mainly with giving the soloist material for display, but not unconnected with what has gone before.