Gateway to Freedom March-During the Civil War this pivotal transportation point located on the Potomac River and Aquia Creek was an important hub for both north and south. In addition it was a key link in the “network of freedom” forfugitive slaves. Paul Murtha pays tribute to this historical site with this great-sounding Sousa style march at an easy level.

'Le Voyage Dans La Lune is a continuous orchestral score of approximately 14 minutes comprising two outer fast sections and a slower inner section of a dream-like character. The work is directly inspired by the film Le Voyage Dans La Lune (1902) written and directed by the pioneering French film-maker Georges Méliès. Méliès was influenced by 19th century interests in science and discoveries as well as the science fiction of Jules Verne. At the same time his work seems fantastic surreal and satirical. Some critics point out an underlying critique of colonial adventuring. The plot centres on a group of astronomers who decide tolaunch a rocket to the moon containing a handful of their number. They reach the moon (famously landing on the moon?s face) and then encounter a strange race of aliens whom they battle and destroy. The return to earth involves a dramatic descent a plunge into the ocean and then celebratory dancing. The film inhabits a surreal and dream-like space and uses an idiosyncratic visual language which transforms reality. This inspired an active musical response in my own score which is by turns abrupt smooth lyrical and violent and expresses something of the strange shifting surfaces and multiple and layered tempos evident in the film. The canons in the horns in the first scene reflect the intense arguments of the astronomers as they consider the project. The slower inner section is inspired by the scenes of the industrial City viewed from its rooftops by the astronomers. It also expresses the wonder of the astronomers as they see the earth rise from the perspective of the moon after their arrival there. The music of the final section is in places conflicted reflecting the violent encounters with the moon?s inhabitants. It moves into a more harmonious phase at the close to match the celebrations upon the astronomers? return from their adventuring. The music could be considered to be a surreal mini-opera

In the autumn of 1974 György Kurtág began to copy selected pieces from the series Games into a music notebook for Zoltán Kocsis who had been his student in earlier years and who, even today, is one of its most authentic performers. Kocsis played from this notebook in the first public performance of Games in 1974. The gradually expanding series of piano pieces also appeared in print in the course of later decades- however, since then he has used this collection - expanded over 32 years since by Kurtág - whenever he plays pieces from Games in concert. Since the time of this 1974 concert, as he writes: I didnt know that the spiral notebook I received at the premi?re would later become, as it were, my permanent companion. That I would take it with me from Japan to Canada, from Australia to Iceland, travelling to the worlds most prominent concert halls, surviving fire damage, flood, transport catastrophes, theft attempts, forced landings and so on, and that - well beyond the intention of its being copied with love - it would include works and sketches for which this notebook would become the principal source. The manuscript gives a glimpse into Kurtágs workshop from the viewpoint of both performers and musicologists. The former can understand more from Kurtágs handwriting about the composers intentions than from the printed score. The musicologists, however, can study the historical origins of the works: some works can be found here in more than one version, others appear in a version different from the printed score. The publication is accompanied by a booklet and a CD supplement. The booklet contains Kocsiss own personal preface, as well as András Wilheims essay providing information about the collection and the pieces contained therein. On the CD we hear 11 works performed by Kocsis, from a recording made in 1982 which has not previously been commercially issued. This edition has been published for György Kurtágs 90th birthday. (Tünde Szitha) / Piano