Par RAVEL MAURICE. In 1920 Maurice Ravel was asked by his publisher Durand to contribute to an issue of La Revue Musicale dedicated to Claude Debussy. A supplement included the first movement of Ravel’s Sonata as well as works contributed by Debussy’s friends Stravinsky, Satie, Dukas, Bartok and de Falla to name only a few. This 1st movement of Ravel’s Sonata, of which the autograph is lost, then …

Béla Bartók's series of piano pieces For Children, based on folk melodies, was written around the end of the first decade of the 20th century. The pieces were published shortly afterwards by the Hungarian publisher Károly Rozsnyai. That first publication was in four volumes, the first two containing a total of 42 pieces based on Hungarian folk tunes, the third and fourth containing 43 pieces based…

Regarded as the highlight among Chopin's polonaises, the great Polonaise in A flat major Op. 53 has also become known as 'octave polonaise' because of the distinctive octave passages in the middle section. As was customary at that time, the work was published in a German, English and French first edition each. There also exists an autograph which served as an engraver's copy for the German first e…

für Violine und Klavier. Par SCHUMANN CLARA. The Romances op. 22 are today among Clara Schumann’s most popular chamber music works. For violinists and pianists, they’re also of particular importance due to the wealth of information by Schumann, Joseph Joachim, and Wilhelm Joseph von Wasielewski on fingering, bowing, and phrasing in these three pieces. While working on the composition and publicati…

Par JANACEK LEOS. The composition “ 1. X. 1905 , ” generally referred to as a “sonata, ” stems from the autumn of 1905, the peak of the riots between the Czech- and German-speaking populations in Janá ek ’s hometown Brno. Reacting to the violent death of a Czech worker, Janá ek wrote a three-part composition for Piano originally bearing the title “From the Street, on October 1, 1905. ” Dissatisfie…

Opera with a Prologue and four Acts (First version) / Opera in five Acts (Second version) Dialogue versions. Par GOUNOD CHARLES. Charles Gounod’s “Faust” secured its international recognition in the version as an entirely sung opera, which from thenceforth has largely obscured the fact that the work was originally composed with spoken dialogues. The early versions staged prior to the 1869 performa…

Cesar Franck's Sonata for Piano and Violin is one of the most treasured works in the violin repertoire, a masterpiece of cyclic form with a gracefulness and expressive force almost paradigmatic for the age of musical Romanticism. This work was composed in 1886 and was dedicated to the Belgian violinist and composer Eugène Ysaÿe.Franck's friend, the cellist Jules Desart, was so impressed when he he…