For Violin, Viola and Piano (Reduced from the orchestra version). Britten was so remarkably prolific as a young composer that many of the works from his teens were put aside to await revision or completion as he rushed on to the next piece. This was particularly the case around the time of his Opus 1 Sinfonietta , composed in the summer of 1932, his second year as a student at the Royal College Of Music. The Sinfonietta was written (in less than three weeks) very soon after Britten had completed the first draft of the Double Concerto - but after finishing the Sinfonietta he went back to revise the Concerto's second movement. He started work on his Op.2 Phantasy for Oboe and String Trio a few weeks later. Although the Concerto follows the same three-movement pattern as the Sinfonietta , it is more ambitious in scale - and since the sketch is, unusually for Britten, complete in practically every detail, it is puzzling that he never made a full score of the work after finishing the composition, and seems to have made no attempt to get it performed. It is not clear if he had particular performers in mind (he was, of course, a Viola player, although he is not likely to have intended the part for himself). He showed the work to his composition teacher at the college, John Ireland, who, as Britten recorded in his diary, was 'pretty pleased' with it - but it is distinctly possible that his experience in rehearsing the Sinfonietta with a student orchestra in 1932 ('I have never heard such an appalling row!' reads another diary entry) discouraged him from going on to complete the Double Concerto in score. He was not to hear any of his orchestral works until the first performance of Our Hunting Fathers in 1936. In the absence of Britten's full score it was necessary for me to prepare the work from the sketch. But the instrumentation is so carefully indicated in the draft that the resulting score is not far from being 100% Britten - only between bars 70 and 74 of the slow movement did there seem to be any need to add anything significant to Britten's texture. The Double Concerto (Britten's manuscript title was 'Concerto In B Minor', but he referred to it in his diary, in characteristic shorthand, as '2ble Concerto') is the most recent addition to his corpus of works, mostly dating from Britten's youth and early maturity, that, since his death, have been revived after many years, or performed for the first time. Britten himself occasionally returned to his early works, and in his last years revised both the early String Quartet In D of 1931 and the opera Paul Bunyan . The Piano score published separately is not a reduction from the orchestral score, but a transcription of Britten's composition sketch, including his indications of instrumentation. The first performance of the Double Concerto was given at the 50th Aldeburgh Festival by Katherine Hunka and Philip Dukes, with the Britten-Pears Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano, on June 15th 1997. -Colin Matthews / Violon, Alto Et Piano

Par BRITTEN BENJAMIN. Britten's ballet for small Orchestra was first performed by the students of the Royal College Of Music Sinfonietta at the Royal College in January 2004. The piece itself was written in 1931 during the summer holidays after the end of Britten's first year at the Royal College of Music, at the age of seventeen. Having been advised to send the original score to the Camargo Society, then the foremost promoter of ballet in the UK, but Britten was without success and never revised the work./ Répertoire / Conducteur

Par ADES THOMAS. La première représentation a été donnée par le London Sinfonietta effectué par Oliver Knussen dans le Barbican Hall, Londres, le 11 février 1994./ Répertoire / Conducteur

Christopher Norton's acclaimed Microjazz has won worldwide popularity with teachers and players alike for its stimulating blend of contemporary popular genres and classical values. The Microjazz Trumpet Collection 2 is made for slightly more experienced players and contains all the pieces that were originally published as Microjazz for Trumpet and Microjazz 2 for Trumpet, together with brand-new pieces. Easy pieces in popular styles such as jazz, blues, rock'n'roll and reggae. Microjazz is the world famous series of pieces based on classical technique yet using popular contemporary styles such as jazz, blues, rock'n'roll and funk. Microjazz helps you develop musicianship and technique through the familiar sounds and styles of popular music. It is this unique combination of modern genres with traditional technique that has made Microjazz an international success with teachers and players, and one of the most widely used educational series ever published. New technology brings Microjazz alive and adds an exciting interactive dimension to practice and performance. Based on classical technique, Microjazz is great way to introduce rhythm and develop co-ordination skills whilst being fun for all ages and standards. A great motivator for the reluctant student, the pieces are equally effective on acoustic or electronic instruments. The edition is part of the ABRSM syllabus (grade 2,3) Content : Coconut Rag Marching Along A Spiritual Duet Big Time Stately Dance Train Blues Latin Bright Spark A Simple Song Springboard Set Piece Snowbound A Dramatic Episode Why Not? Hoping Upbeat A Tuneful Song Bowler Hat Trumpet Song Breezy Empty Page Gentle Path On a Positve Note Sandcastles Strolling Walking the Dog On the Seashore Up and Over Hight Score