Par SPARKE PHILIP. MASQUERADE was commissioned by Stadtmusik Willisau from Switzerland (Reto Güdel, conductor) to celebrate their 175th anniversary in 2003 and first performed by them in November that year. 1. OvertureThe first movement opens with a fanfare-like figure, featuring the brass, before the main them is introduced over staccato chords. After a short, syncopated interlude a legato theme …

Arranged for TTBB chorus and Piano accompaniment. Commissioned by Gareth Malone for Series Four of BBC TV's 'The Choir' and first performed by Malone and the Military Wives' choir as part of The Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on 12th November 2011 in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen. A favourite for the 2011 Christmas Number One, with support from radi…

Par RACHMANINOV SERGEI / GERSTEIN KIRILL (Arr.). In the Silence of the Secret Night is a piano arrangement of Sergei Rachmaninoff?s setting of Afanasy Fet, taken from the composer?s song cycle Six Romances, Op. 4 (1890-93). The poem describes a fitful lover?s nocturnal yearning. This three-minute piece draws on pianist Kirill Gerstein?s idiomatic grasp of the composer?s music, transcribing the son…

Arranged for TTBB chorus and Piano accompaniment. Commissioned by Gareth Malone for Series Four of BBC TV's 'The Choir' and first performed by Malone and the Military Wives' choir as part of The Royal British Legion's Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on 12th November 2011 in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen. A favourite for the 2011 Christmas Number One, with support from radi…

Par GRIGNY NICOLAS DE / KOEHLHOEFF. This edition of the Organ Book by Nicolas de Grigny was edited by C. L. Koehlhoeffer. Featuring 43 pieces, this book uses pedals and other techniques that would be known by advanced players. The scores of the Organ Book were first published in 1699 under another name before being republished under this name in 1711. J. S. Bach corrected these initial editions, a…

Op. 20. Par BARTOK BELA. After his 15 Hungarian peasant songs (HN 1404), these Improvisations on Hungarian peasant songs are the second of Bartók' s works to feature the words ' Hungarian peasant songs” in their title. The manner in which he confronts folk melodies with subtle, avant-garde sounds here was later described by Bartók himself as venturing to ' the outermost limits”. He also breaks up …

Gian Carlo Menotti (1911--2007) is best remembered as an opera composer and founder of three international performing arts festivals. Menotti has left behind a lasting legacy of lyrical and accessible music. Poemetti: 12 Pieces for Children was first published in 1937. These descriptive pieces demonstrate Menotti's celebrated lyric gift as well as the careful craft that characterizes his work. Tak…

Dvorák's 'Requiem?, for soloists, choir and orchestra, is one of the highlights within the international choral repertoire. Now Bärenreiter is presenting this work in an arrangement by Joachim Linckelmann with chamber orchestra based on the full score from the 'Complete Edition of the Works by Antonín Dvorák?.The arrangement dispenses with all the brass instruments except for a single horn- all th…

Easter Cantata. Par PACHELBEL JOHANN. Christ lag in Todesbanden (Christ lay in grim death's prison) Easter Cantata In recent years the demand for making available a larger number of choral works by Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) has made itself felt more strongly than ever before. Within the past few years the search for unpublished manuscripts of choral compositions written by Johann Pachelbel has …