Par HAYDN JOSEPH. The culture of piano-duet arrangements begins in the early-to-mid nineteenth century, the great epoch of domestic bourgeois music-making, with its easy availability of decent instruments for every front parlour or gilded salon. All the way from the Wittgenstein Palace in Vienna with its eight grand pianos, to the uprights in the suburban best-rooms of Europe and beyond; and above…

Par FEENSTRA KATHLEEN. Blossoms of Colour is a collection of expressive, heartfelt atmospheric piano solos for late intermediate to advanced Level students. / Date parution : 2024-06-01/ Recueil / Piano

Par D'OURVILLE LEON. The circumstances of Léon d’Ourville’s life and times remain shrouded in mystery. Although the Soirées Musicales originally appeared in print over one hundred years ago, it is, at the time of writing, impossible to find any hard evidence about when or where d’Ourville lived; indeed nothing can be presently reported concerning anything to do with his life or circumstances. On…

Par RAVEL MAURICE. I came up with the idea to transcribe Boléro for solo piano when I was creating my recital programmes for the 2024–2025 season. 2025 is the 150th anniversary year of of Ravel’s birth. It would be a year of many piano recitals across the world with works including Gaspard de la Nuit, Valses nobles et sentimentale”, etc. Boléro would be featured less, as the original is written fo…

Par SAINT-SAENS CAMILLE / NICHOLAS ELLIS CAMILLE (Arr.. Saint-Saëns’s Danse Macabre began life in 1874 as a song, then as a tone poem for full orchestra, and quickly became one of his most popular works. It conjures a midnight scene where Death himself plays the fiddle, summoning skeletons to dance until dawn. The music brims with wit and theatrical colour: eerie harp strokes mark the hour, a skel…

from String Quartet No.1 Op.11. Par TCHAIKOVSKY PYOTR ILYICH / NICHOLAS ELLIS(Arr.). The slow movement of Tchaikovsky’s First String Quartet is one of his most cherished melodies. Inspired by a Russian folk tune he had heard sung by a house servant, the Andante Cantabile combines heartfelt simplicity with the composer’s gift for lyrical expansion. The movement soon took on a life of its own, admir…

from La Vida Breve. Par DE FALLA MANUEL / ELLIS NICHOLAS (Arr.). Drawn from his early opera La vida breve (1905), de Falla’s Spanish Dance No. 1 has become one of his most celebrated pieces. Bursting with rhythmic fire and Andalusian colour, it captures the spirit of Spanish folk tradition with its driving pulse, passionate melodies, and sudden shifts between delicacy and intensity. In this arrang…