What better wish for children - and all of us - this Christmas than Peace on Earth' This fun and poignant new musical from Sheila Wilson (Hosanna Rock!, Scrooge, Rock Around the Flock, The Sel'sh Giant) moves through laughter and tears as it tells the Christmas story with style and wit. All the favourite characters feature, with optional appearances from King Herod and Emperor Caesar Augustus, and…

The opera Nais was premiered on 22 April 1749 at the Academie royale in the Palais-Royal, Paris, in celebration of the signing of the so-called Treaty of Aachen. It was revived again in August 1764 shortly before Rameau's death and achieved great success as the 'opera of peace', even though it did not appear in print during the composer's lifetime.In numerous arias Rameau provides his singers ampl…

Par SPARKE PHILIP. In 2006, a long-time dream of Philip Sparke finally became reality: to compose a set of variations on the famous chorale from Saint-Saëns’ renowned Organ Symphony. In 2009 the composer reworked the piece for brass band. The resulting Saint-Saëns Variations has been simplified, shortened and in many places completely recomposed, to distill the essence of the symphony even further…

Par MARTIN FRANK. This edition of Frank Martin’s mass is a scholarly-critical as well as a performing edition that takes all sources into account. As a matter of fact, it was only during the research for this edition that a previously unknown source was discovered and evaluated – a radio recording of the mass, which was produced in 1970 by the Dutch NCRV Vocaal Ensemble with the participation of t…

Par GASIENIEC MIROSLAW. The first version of the Sonata for violin and piano was written in the autumn of 2008, when I had the opportunity to work with the violinist Robert Bachara, who was pursuing his doctoral studies at Wroclaw Music Academy. A few years later, around the turn of 2016, I revised the musical material, made some changes and shortened the work. It was then that Dr Jacek Ropski, a …

Brahms' Hungarian Dances count on brilliant and spirited virtuosity whereas his 16 Waltzes op. 39 are more modest and intimate. Yet they are just as haunting - who isn't familiar with the gently rocking melody of #14 that is one of Brahms' best-known musical ideas? His publisher must have had an inkling of the success of this collection, as shortly after its publication in its original version for…

Par BARTOK BELA. Bartok's 'String Quartet No. 5' was commissioned by the formidable Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, leading patron of chamber music in the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century. Bartok is alleged to have composed the work in a one-month span of isolation in 1934, and it received its premiere in Washington, D.C. by the Kolisch Quartet in 1935. The String Quartet No. 5 was published…

As a continuation of the new Urtext edition of the Schubert lieder, Walther Dürr has now edited volume five for high, medium and low voices. Volumes 1 to 4 of this edition contain mainly lieder which Schubert himself saw into print (in his own choice and order) and in the fourth volume works from the last two years of his life are included. The lieder in volume 5 onwards are strictly presented in …

Bärenreiter's new scholarly-critical edition of Gabriel Fauré's evergreen, the Pavane op. 50, has been edited by Robin Tait as part of the 'Complete Works of Gabriel Fauré?.The popularity of the work is mostly attributed to its many arrangements but the original version for orchestra is being published here for the first time. Shortly after completing the orchestral work, Fauré began work on a ver…

The Sonata in A major Hob. XVI:26 is one of the sonatas by Joseph Haydn which increasingly become the focus of attention of our piano teachers. Thanks to its moderate technical demands, it is perfect for piano lessons. At the same time, it shows essential features of Haydn's piano style in a condensed form - an expressive musical declamation, rhetorical breaks full of tension, wit and humour - whi…

What better wish for children - and all of us - this Christmas than Peace on Earth? This fun and poignant new musical from Sheila Wilson (Hosanna Rock!, Scrooge, Rock Around the Flock, The Sel?sh Giant) moves through laughter and tears as it tells the Christmas story with style and wit. All the favourite characters feature, with optional appearances from King Herod and Emperor Caesar Augustus, and…

Tragédie en cinq actes. Par RAMEAU JEAN-PHILIPPE. Rameau 's ; Hippolyte Et Aricie presents nymphs and deities in abject disarray. This tragedie en musique is a fascinating masterpiece by the French baroque composer, and the score of the final 1757 version is the result of his many years experience with the theatre. Rameau revised the opera twice after its première in 1733, shortening the original …

From The New World. Par DVORAK ANTONIN. The ?New World? Symphony, a jewel of the symphonic repertoire, is finally available in a dependable scholarly-critical edition. Yet again Jonathan Del Mar has managed to untangle a complex network of surviving sources, some of which have never been taken into account before. Among them are several musical examples in Dvorak?s hand known to have been used in…

Par PURCELL HENRY. A shortened version of Purcell's Fairy Queen for concert performance devised by Peter Pears, with the words taken from an anonymous adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream./ Répertoire / Chorale