SKU: ST.AC241

ISBN 9790220222535.

Seventy next year, Bayan Northcott is a leading writer about music, and a composer who has particularly focused on variation forms - hence the 'doubles' of this new work ('doubles' being an alternative term for variations, as found for example in Bach); and hence, in celebratory mode, 'doubles all round' as the title for this sparkling piece d'occasion composed at the request of Endymion to celebrate their 30th anniversary.

Doubles All Round would indeed make an ideal five-minute introduction to a new-music concert, or a fascinating contemporary excursus in a classical programme that featured the line up of flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, horn, violin, cello and piano. The work is launched by a vigorous keyboard prelude, which returns after the third double in a brief cadenza, before the piece is rounded off by the fourth double, quasi una coda.

Bayan Northcott's collected critical writings, The Way We Listen Now, were published by Plumbago Books in 2009.

SKU: HL.48024129

ISBN 9781784542344. UPC: 888680708894. 7.25x10.25 inches.

Britten's arrangements of Schubert's The Trout (op 32/D550) for small orchestra, and Schumann's Spring Night (op 39 no 12) for chamber orchestra, dating from 1942, are settings of anonymous English translations. The new edition includes the original German words (Schubart, Eichendorff), as many performers and audiences will prefer the songs in the original language. In his preface, Nicholas Clark, Librarian at the Britten-Pears Foundation, speculates on why the songs were set in English and on the possibility that the translator was Peter Pears, commenting that “the English language settings allowed [Britten] to edge away from existing versions of the songs, to assist him in imprinting his own unique mark on both works.” The Trout is scored for 2 clarinets & strings; Spring Night for flute, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, trombone, triangle, harp (or piano) and strings.

SKU: BR.MR-2306

ISBN 9790004488737. 9 x 12 inches.

Sibelius was a major force in the Finnish national movement and many of his works were inspired by the music and the culture of his homeland. In this transcription, arranger Andrew Middleton aimed to use the instrumental timbres in a way that retains the original patriotic qualities but within a smaller ensemble. The first movement is dominated by the brass with their march-like melody, which emerges dramatically from the fragmented phrases first heard on the horns. In the melancholic second movement, the lyrical qualities of the oboes and bassoons capture the reflective nature of the music. In the rousing final movement Alla Marcia of the suite, sweeping arpeggios in the flutes and clarinets come to the fore in the concluding, exhilarating march.

The Karelia Suite Op. 11 was written by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius in 1893 and was named after the Karelia region of Finland. It since has become one of the composer's most popular works.