SKU: HL.48024084

ISBN 9781784541781. UPC: 888680708528. 8.25x11.75 inches. Hawkes Pocket Scores 1594.

Speranza is Turnage's most important orchestral score to date, as close to a symphony as any in his output. The four movements are titled by the Arabic, German, Gaelic and Hebrew words for 'hope', yet this optimism appears to be hard-won as if through a century of conflict. The work grew from reflections on the post-Holocaust poetry of Paul Celan, and the music is coloured by lamenting melodies – Palestinian, Jewish and Israeli – supplemented by the use of the Armenian dudak and Eastern European cimbalom. Other than the scherzo-like Irish-themed third movement the mood is brooding with a sequence of processions and variations illuminated by shafts of orchestral light. Full orchestra materials available on hire. Suitable for advanced standard performers.

&ldquo ;Mark-Anthony Turnage's monumental Speranza is an act of prayer which goes straight to the heart...The very act of creation, for these resplendent forces, is an expression of hope, even if the tale it tells is tragic...The final Jewish melody blossoms into a majestic surge, pulling motifs from the work together.” –BBC Music Magazine

SKU: CF.MXE110

ISBN 9781491151167. UPC: 680160908660. 9 x 12 inches.

For the 20th anniversary season of the Cassatt String Quartet, Godfrey created a three-movement work that has been hailed as some of the most ambitious chamber music we have heard from any living composer. (New Music Connoisseur) Built on the concept of looking back/looking forward, Ricordanza-Speranzo opens with a quiet, reflective movement, before a furious second movement of ever-shifting meter (con furore). The third movement begins with a piano solo passage. Natalie Zhu, who performed the Philadelphia premiere with the Daedalus Quartet, says, There's a huge piano solo at the beginning, and it's almost like an improvisation. It's written out but it feels like you're improvising. When the strings join in, Zhu says, It's almost like a waltz. It's lively and pretty, and the strings and piano are having fun. We're trading melodies. It's almost like a conversation between the instruments.