Minatures de Huw Watkin pour alto et piano ont été écrites pour l'altiste Simon Rowland-Jones et la première fois au Festival de musique North Norfolk en 2009. Il y a huit mouvements courts. ' Le premier a l'alto jouant des fragments de courts, parfois angulaires, parfois lyriques au-dessus des harmonies simples, lent au piano. La quatrième et les septième mouvements sont des variations sur le premier. Entre les deux sont très contrastés miniatures : numéro deux est rapide et passionné, tandis que nombre trois sont lente et contemplative. La cinquième miniature a l'alto jouant semiquavers rapides plus insistantes notes répétées dans le piano, tandis que le mouvement final est très lent et sereine. ' (Huw Watkins) / Alto Et Piano

Philipp Maintz was born in Aachen Germany in 1977. He received his first composition lessons from Michael Reudenbach. He studied composition with Robert HP Platz in Maastricht from 1997-2003 graduating with distinction followed by a further degree in composition and electronic music with Karlheinz Essl at the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz. He has received scholarships and invitations from institutions including the Electronic Studio at the University of Liège the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt IRCAM Paris and the North Rhine-Westphalia Ministry of Culture an Artist?s Scholarship from Lower Saxony for the Künstlerhof Schreyahn and otherhonours: the Supportive Prize from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation in 2005 a scholarship from the Wilfried Steinbrenner Foundation in 2006 and a German Government Scholarship to study at the Cité Internationale des Arts Paris in 2007 Scholarship awarded by the German Minister of Culture for a one-year stay at the German Academy Rome Villa Massimo (2010). His compositions have been performed at festivals including the International Gaudeamus Music Week Amsterdam agora-festival Paris ars nova (SWR) International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik musica (Strasbourg) Wien Modern Hear&Now London and the Salzburg Festival.

Viola and Piano was commissioned for the Hindermith Viola Festival and Kim Kashkashian and written during the summer of 1995 Viola and Piano is the third in an erratic series of virtuoso works for solo instrument andpiano. The first performance was given by Kim Kashkashian and Peter Nagy London 1995. Duration 10 minutes. Score and separate viola part included.

After Ariadne was commissioned by the violist Paul Silverthorne who premièred it with Richard Rodney Bennett himself in 1987 at the Cheltenham Festival. This is based on the famous Monteverdi madrigal Lasciate Mi Morire.