Par HAENDEL GEORG FRIEDRICH. ?Giulio Cesare in Egitto? is by far Handel?s most frequently performed opera owing its success not least to its subject matter, one of the best known love stories in world history. Already during Handel?s lifetime the popular work was often staged and therefore adapted by Handel for each of the performance conditions. The editor Hans Dieter Clausen has succeeded in editorially defining and practically presenting these adaptations ? essentially four versions ? on the basis of a meticulous study of the sources within the framework of the ?Halle Handel Edition?. The new edition allows for a performance of each of the four versions. The version of 1725 is particularly noteworthy because Handel newly devised the role of Sesto for the famous tenor Francesco Borosini. The libretto shows the Roman dictator Cesar in a friendly light. He instructs his enemy, the Egyptian tyrant Tolomeo, how to treat adversaries: he reconciles the widow and son of his enemy Pompeo who was murdered by Tolomeo: he is generous and just, hands on, but also diplomatic, thoughtful, aware of the limits of his power, and susceptible for art and nature. However, the actual protagonist of the opera is Cleopatra. In a masterly way Handel develops her character musically. In his extensive Foreword Hans Dieter Clausen not only decribes the genesis, historical background, reception and the edition of the opera, he also examines the musical and dramaturgical reworking of individual numbers in ?Giulio Cesare?. Handel was such an expert in adapting arias for new purposes and other characters that he did not only meet the needs at hand but often the new version surpassed the original. In this way, the reader gains, in passing, a well-founded insight into Handel?s work methods when designing and redevising his characters. The detailed Critical Commentary includes information on the comprehensive and highly complex source situation as well as on individual editorial decisions./ Répertoire / Chant et Orchestre

The première of Daudet's play L'Arlésienne with incidental music by Bizet at the Théâtre du Vaudeville on 30 September 1872 was a devastating event for both playwright and composer and the production was removed from the repertory after 19 performances. The critic Johannès Weber however was alert to the quality of Bizet's score and suggested that the composer should excerpt and rescore several pieces for the Concerts populaires where 'the lovely music would be better appreciated than at the Vaudeville'. Bizet must have moved rather quickly to follow Weber's suggestion for the première of the first Arlésienne suitetook place only six weeks later at the Concerts populaires on 10 November 1872 and the work in its new abridged form was soon taken up by many other orchestras. Thus before his death in June 1875 Bizet had the satisfaction that his suite from L'Arlésienne was played by all the major concert societies in Paris and it has remained firmly in the concert and recorded repertoire ever since.

Love from a Stranger was a 'thriller' starring Ann Harding and Basil Rathbone based on an Agatha Christie short story Philomel Cottage. As well as Britten's score the film also included excerpts from Grieg'sPeer Gynt music and a contemporary dance band. Not all of the present score was used - No. 3 Brighton was omitted and cuts were made in nos. 5 and 6. In the latter a savage cut deleted the references to themusic of the other numbers in bars 13-20 including the trombone's scale which alludes to a scene in which a child practices the piano unseen. Britten was not happy with the way his music was used and this was to remain hisonly work for the commercial cinema composed in 1936.

Music Of Our Time. Par HENZE HANS WERNER. ‘My Sinfonia No. 8 is not at all tragic or moody like the Seventh. It is a summer piece and is based on three moments from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream‘, writes Hans Werner Henze. This, however, is all we get to know from the composer regarding the work’s reference to Shakespeare’s comedy. On closer examination of the three-movement symphony it turns out that the first movement is a fantasia on Oberon’s order to Puck to search for the magic flower. In the second movement, Henze apparently set the love scenes between Titania and Bottom to music. Ultimately, the final movement shines gracefully and peacefully as if everything that had happened before had only been a dream. - Hans Werner Henze/ Répertoire / Orchestre

Par ROSSINI GIOACHINO. Aside from The Barber Of Seville, most of Rossini's thirty-nine operas are revived only rarely today. The overtures to his operas, however, are another matter entirely. Evergreen in their appeal, many remain popular mainstays of orchestral repertoires worldwide, loved by audiences for their elegance, lively rhythms and beautiful melodies. This volume contains five of the most admired of Rossini's operatic overtures, reprinted from authoritative full-score editions. / Opéra-opérette / Répertoire / Orchestre

This authoritative edition presents full-score reproductions of three of Liszt?s best-known symphonic poems. Les Preludes (Symphonic Poem No.3) grew out of the composer?s unpublished choral setting of Joseph Autran?s poem ?The Four Elements?, blending stirring martial music and lovely pastoral themes to make this work the most popular of the symphonic poems. Mazeppa (Symphonic Poem No.6) evokes Victor Hugo?s portrayal of the Cossack leader and the symbolic triumph that comes only after defeat: ?He runs, he flies, he falls, and he stands up king!? Heroide Funebre (Symphonic Poem No.8) is the last vestige of the monumental Revolutionary Symphony, planned but never completed, suggesting universal brotherhood: a fine, heroic, dignified funeral march. In these richly sonorous works, Liszt explored the concept of the one-movement ?transformation of themes,? an approach to composition that Wagner would carry forward in his development of the leitmotif. Liszt?s expanding chromaticism would be no less influential, anticipating the twentieth century?s embrace of atonality. Frequently performed favourites of audiences around the world, these three works are reprinted from the original Breitkopf & Härtel edition.