Par HIMES WILLIAM. A marvelous suite! The bright, cheerful opening will engage the entire audience from the first measure. Movement 1 is based on El Tortillero (The Tortilla Vendor), and is very creatively scored including the joyful dissonance of a busy street corner. The heartfelt and poignant second movement makes a pleasant contrast, and the Allegro Festivo marking for the third movement means…

Par VAN BELCUM HENK. As the title suggests, this work is a partita: it consists of a number of variations on a chorale melody. The partita has been popular for centuries, especially when it comes to organ music. Henk van Belcum, who is active in the choir world, chose for his Partita Piccola the German hymn Wunderbarer König as a starting point. Partita Piccola consists of four variations and a ch…

Impressions of a Village. Par DE HAAN JACOB. Bliss: Impressions of a Village contains three impressions of a village in the beautiful Brabant province in the Netherlands. The fi rst movement is in a very ‘classical style’ and, appropriately, captures the village’s history. Saxophones and a glockenspiel follow the path of a small, playful river. The entire band join in as the small river approaches…

Handel's 'Agrippina? HWV 6 was performed with great success at the 2015 International Handel Festival in Göttingen (Germany) using the new Bärenreiter edition including the performance material and this vocal score.'Agrippina? is the last opera that Handel completed and premiered in Italy. The excellent libretto is one of the few original opera libretti that he set to music. The plot is tightly co…

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. Par DE HAAN JAN. Dear Lord and Father of Mankind (Seigneur et Père de l’Humanité) est un hymne composé par l'organiste anglais Frederick Charles Maker (1844-1927), d’après un poème de John Greenleaf Whittier. Jan de Haan nous offre une adaptation calme et cependant intense de cet air méditatif. L’euphonium joue un rôle important dans la première partie de la pièce,…

Prayer to the Power of Love. Par BORTNIANSKY DMITRY STEPANOVYCH. The Ukrainian Dmitri Bortniansky (1751-1825) received lessons at the local singing school in his hometown of Hlukhiv, and soon his extraordinary talent was recognised. He was somewhat of a child prodigy, writing his first opera at a young age. Following his studies Bortniansky was appointed court composer and Kapellmeister of the Imp…

Par SPARKE PHILIP. The four tunes used in this suite have been made universally popular in Sir Henry Wood?s Fantasia on British Sea Songs, which is an ever-present ingredient in The Last Night of the Proms. He introduced this colourful suite into the Proms in 1905, to celebrate the centenary of Nelson?s brilliant victory at Trafalgar, when ?Britannia? really did ?rule the waves?. Bring the excitem…

Par VAN DER ROOST JAN. Jan Van der Roost was commissioned to write this hymn by the “International Association for Human Rights” in Frankfurt. The commission specified that the instrumentation of this simple hymn should be so, that it can be performed by a variety of combinations of players. The piece starts with an “intrada” for brass ensemble based on the first bars of the hymn, but is “ad libit…