Miller Rag - Boogie For Strings - Jazz Invention - Passacaglia In Jazz - Birthday Serenade. Par SCHMITZ MANFRED. Five quartets at an intermediate level that offer a welcome change to classical literature. / Pop & rock / Répertoire / Quatuor

Par HESS NIGEL. Commissioned in 1985, 'East Coast Pictures' has become a modern classic for all wind bands. 'Shelter Island' is the first movement of the suite. The music conjures up a vivid picture of this small island, moving from a crowded summer tourist trap to the onslaught of the Atlantic during the winter./ Répertoire / Orchestre D'Harmonie

Par WEILL KURT. Kurt Weill developed his creative energies mainly within the world of musical theater, where he proved to be an immensely productive and imaginative innovator, but he also left behind a small body of work for the concert hall. The Concerto for Violin and Wind Orchestra op. 12 dates from the spring of 1924. Scored for two flutes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, one oboe and trumpet, percussion and four contrabasses, the concerto comprises three movements. While composing the work, Weill informed his publisher: 'I am working on a concerto for violin and wind orchestra that I hope to finish within two or three weeks. The work is inspired by the idea - one never carried out before - of juxtaposing a single violin with a chorus of winds.' The specific character of Weill's concerto as music written for chamber orchestra (with an often soloistic treatment of instruments) leads to a transparency that requires utmost precision in the ensemble playing. In the quest for an overall sonic balance, the coarser-sounding wind instruments need to explore all dynamic nuances. The solo part is challenging not only from a technical standpoint but also from an acoustic one (it is crucial to make the violin 'sound'). In spite of these challenges - or precisely because of them - critics in the 1920s called the solo part highly idiomatic and extremely rewarding. Since then the concerto has become a 'modern classic' in concert halls around the world. (Elmar Juchem, August 2010)/ Répertoire / Violon et Orchestre d'Instruments à Vent

Par SEARLE LESLIE. Two swinging waltzes from the pen of the Englishman Leslie Searle, born in 1937. Easy to play, popular in style, a welcome addition to the repertoire for strings in the well-known Schott series MODERN STRINGS. These compositions may be played by various combinations of instruments, from a string quintet to a string orchestra. Other pieces by Leslie Searle: Ragtimes for String Ensemble (ED 8454). An ideal addition to the repertoire for everyone who would like to try playing string pieces in the popular style, as well as the classical repertoire./ Répertoire / Ensemble à Cordes

Par VANHAL JOHANN BAPTIST. The unbroken popularity of Vanhal's sole double bass concerto in competitions and for practice and concert purposes is reason enough for us to publish the work in Breitkopf Urtext. The new edition profits from Tobias Glöckler's experience of many years. As with the other great double-bass concertos of the classical Viennese repertoire (Dittersdorf, Hoffmeister), Glöckler arrives at convincing solutions. He began by filtering out a solid musical text from the source (which was not always free of contradictions) that was supplied with many additions. The disposition of the solo part required detailed knowledge of performance practice, since the work was written in the historical Viennese double bass tuning, and a few passages cannot be played without difficulty on a modern instrument. As with Dittersdorf and Hoffmeister, the piano reduction makes it possible to use three different double-bass tunings (solo, orchestral and Viennese). Moreover, it contains the editor's virtuoso cadenzas as well./ Répertoire / Conducteur

Featured in all of the popular Toy Story movies, the big band version recorded by Robert Goulet (as the voice of Wheezy) is the most memorable. In a similar style, Mark Taylor brings a fresh setting of this modern day classic for vocal soloist and big band.

Uptown Downbeat is a classic 1930's Duke with a modern twist, call and response between brass and saxes, great soli sections for both trombones and woodwinds, features solos for clarinet, trumpet, and alto. / Ensemble De Jazz