Par BOULANGER NADIA. Nadia Boulanger's Three Pieces for Viola and Piano Posterity has retained of Nadia Boulanger only her gifts as a virtuoso of the piano and organ, her skill as a conductor (of vocal ensemble and orchestra) and most of all, her incredible charisma as a teacher. For nearly sixty years, 'Mademoiselle' made the most of her famous Wednesdays, bringing rigour and passion to the training of several generations of musicians: among so many others, Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Igor Markevitch, Michel Legrand, Witold Lutoslawski, Astor Piazzolla, Quincy Jones and John-Eliot Gardiner have all kept unforgettable memories of these times. Was Nadia Boulanger wrong to let teaching music take precedence over her composing, as Gabriel Fauré, the great master she venerated, believed? The publication of Three Pieces for Viola and Piano, raises the question. This transcription of Three Pieces for cello and piano was composed between 1911 and 1913 and published by Heugel. The two initial pieces were originally written for organ: the first, in E flat minor, brings a moderate tempo to a melancholy cantilena with Romantic accents, while the second, in A minor, exudes warmth and tenderness. The third piece (C sharp minor), most likely originally titled Danse espagnole, heralds the Roaring Twenties with its restlessness and festive crackle. Together they emit a charm that is difficult to resist./ Répertoire / Alto et Piano

Per Viola E Pianoforte. Par CALLIGARIS SERGIO. Sergio Calligaris was born in Rosario (1941), Argentina. He is one of the last musicians to incarnate the traditional 19th century figure of pianist, teacher and composer, inaugurated at the beginning of the 19th century by Muzio Clementi and carriedon after that by a sequence of famous names that the history of music has handed down to us. As a pianist, he began to give public performances at the age of 13, making his debut in his home town Rosario. Following this success, he embarked upon an extremely busy career as a soloist, giving numerous recitals in Buenos Aires and other citiesin Argentina. He continued to take advanced lessons with eminent exponents of the most prestigious international piano schools. In 1974 he became an Italian citizen and settled in Rome, teaching piano as principal instrument at the S. Pietro a Majella StateConservatory in Naples, the Luisa DAnnunzio Conservatory in Pescara and the Alfredo Casella Conservatory in Aquila. As a composer, he began - at just 9 years of age - to study in the rigorous school of Paul Hindemith, under the guidance of Father Luis Machado, from whom he inherited a love of counterpoint and a strong taste for harmony. He took a diploma incomposition, counterpoint and fugue at the age of 16 at the Amigos del Arte Society in Rosario, going on in 1964 to do an advanced course in 12-tone counterpoint at the Cleveland Institute of Music. The catalogue of his compositions, which has nowreached Op. 55, encompasses a huge range of instrumental/vocal chamber music and symphonic works: a vast and articulated catalogue, in which Sergio Calligaris’s composition expresses its inspiration through the dramatic development of a dialecticalcontrast between the two natures of the composer’s personality - the elegiac and the dithyrambic - which confront and interact with each other giving rise to artistic outcomes of a deeply moving nature. / Niveau : Intermédiaire / Date parution : 1905-06-19/ Répertoire / Alto et Piano

The viola is often not credited with being able to take over a soloistic role - but this is completely unjust. In 1738 Johann Philipp Eisel already wrote of the viola as being the 'very bowels of music? and stressed that it was not only needed to 'flesh out? the orchestral sound but also as a 'concert voice, which is fully proven by the concertos and concert overtures by the famous Capell-Meister Telemann?. Telemann's Concerto in G major is considered to be one of the earliest works for solo viola and orchestra and forms part of the core repertoire for pupils and students. In our Urtext piano reduction the specialist Kai Köpp has provided information regarding historical performance practice. / Alto Et Piano

Portrait #2 'E.B.B' is taken from Two Portraits for Strings composed by Benjamin Britten. This fantastic, flowing Viola solo over, soft, staccato Piano chords really expresses a range of gripping emotions.Here it is present in a version arranged for Viola and Piano by Martin Outram, violist of the Maggini Quartet. / Alto Et Piano