Enchanted Invocation is a work for solo percussionist playing vibraphone and 5 crotales. Augusta Read Thomas writes: "I love composing. In a good way, my nerve endings for sound are always dialed up high - actually, they are on perpetual alert. If I hear one note or chord or if, for example, I play one on an instrument, I get lit up as if electric shock ribbons instantly race from my ears and fingertips to my imagination and then my creativity and craft play high-speed ping-pong! Where the ball is bouncing back and forth 100 times a second. The outcomes are unpredictable to me. I stay absolutely flexible. Everything is malleable, springy, stretchy, coil-able, color-able, twistable, bouncing, zig-zagging, and splinter-able. It feels like I am dancing with contrapuntal flickering sonic lights that accumulate into a spinning pinwheel spawning sound and form. I slide, skate, swivel, and spin with my materials - crafting nuance and finesse - and then I sculpt, shape, chisel, fashion, and form. At the end of all of that, I feel as if the piece wrote me -not as if I wrote the piece! My music has it's own inner life. If I listen carefully, the piece I am composing will tell me what it next needs."

These editions mark the first publication of Julius R�ntgen's Variations on a Theme by C�sar Franck and his Variations on a Theme by Beethoven. Both works have been recorded and published by Nimbus. Each unique set of variations demonstrates Julius R�ntgen's capabilities of a composer in general and in this important genre specifically. R�ntgen's writing is effortless, balanced, harmonically interesting and highly expressive. The editors believe that introducing this publication into the 2-piano literature will give performers and audiences a new work of artistic merit and musical excellence. Composed is a set of twelve variations with Finale. The theme - Chant de la Creuse - is a 19-measure folksong in D Minor which was not composed by Franck at all The twelve variations exhibit a mastery of unity in terms of their expressivity, moods and architecture in addition to their obvious thematic connections. R�ntgen was a meticulous composer and the manuscript held at Netherlands Music Institute in Den Haag, is comprised of a separate score for each piano part. The end of both parts concludes with "23 Sept, 1903" in the composer's hand. Edited by Mark Anderson and Michelle Mares.

Richard Blackford is one of the foremost concert and media composers in Europe. His concert works are performed regularly around the world and his music for film and television is broadcast frequently in almost every European country. Blackford studied composition with John Lambert at the Royal College of Music, then with Hans Werner Henze in Rome. Early awards include the Tagore Gold Medal, the Ricordi Prize and the Mendelssohn Scholarship. He was first Composer-in-Residence at Balliol College Oxford, and later Composer-in-Residence to the Brno Philharmonic in the Czech Republic. His works were performed in the major music festivals of the world, including Adelaide, Berlin, Brighton, Montepulciano, Cheltenham, Long Island. He has composed in virtually every medium, including opera, choral, orchestral, theatre, film and ballet. Prelude and Passacaglia was written for David Hill. It was recorded by him on the organ of Peterborough Cathedral for Regent Records on July 29th 2019.

Hannah Mathilde von Rothschild was born in Frankfurt on the 5th of March 1832 and showed her musical talent early, being an excellent pianist and composer. Mathilde spent her childhood between Vienna and Frankfurt, and was greatly encouraged in her musical studies by her mother who brought her children up to be trilingual and to have a deep appreciation of art and music. Frédéric Chopin was a frequent performer at the salon of James and Betty de Rothschild, in rue Laffitte in Paris, and taught various Rothschild ladies, including the 16 or 17 year-old Mathilde who would have taken lessons from him during one of her frequent visits to her cousins. Rothschild’s international lifestyle results in a rich and varied collection of songs; the genre of song provided the ideal vehicle for Rothschild’s thorough understanding of languages with sympathetic yet astute settings of French, German and English texts. In 1867 the esteemed musician Sir Charles Hallé told Louisa de Rothschild that ‘no-one can have any idea of your cousin’s rare and delightful talent; her compositions are charming, full of tender grace and sparkling originality.’ She was asked by many leading singers to compose for them, including Christine Nillson, Selma Kurz and Adelina Patti. Sechs Lieder was composed in 1876.

Kenneth Woods writes: "Matthew and I met not long after the ESO announced the 21st Century Symphony Project, and the work he told me he wanted to write sounded like a thrilling addition to the Project. Hearing these two powerful new symphonies side by side, one can't help but be struck by the ways in which they complement and contrast one another. They are clearly songs from the same voice, and speak the same musical language. Although the two works are fundamentally different in structure and emotional impact, one can still see interesting similarities in how Taylor approaches symphonic form, particularly in his telling, but very selective, use of cyclic structures. The Fourth Symphony was written for a very large orchestra, the Fifth for a much smaller ensemble, using the same forces as Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, the other symphony heard at the concert in Cadogan Hall, London, where it was premiered by the English Symphony Orchestra in 2019. Stripped of percussion, harp and keyboards, the soundworld of the Fifth Symphony is more austere than that of the Fourth, but no less intense. And though the Fifth uses a string section about half the size of the Fourth, it is, in many ways, the more explosive, even violent, work."

Composer Richard Blackford writes of his Five Naidu Songs for Mezzo Soprano: "Sarojini Naidu's poems cover a wide range of human experience, from love, ecstasy, delight in the natural world, loneliness, acceptance and praise. These five poems form a cycle of one Indian woman's experience of lost love, delight in a colourful procession, the thrill of new young love, contemplation of death, and ecstasy at the beauty of creation and the omnipresence of God. Her poetry pulsates with her love of Indian landscapes, seasons and flowers, simple joys, devotion and the splendor of Indian festivals. I chose an accompaniment of string quartet and clarinet to extend and enhance the richness of Naidu's imagery and the passion she evokes. The clarinet, like a second melodic voice, weaves around the vocal line, sometimes sensuous, sometimes raucous and abandoned, in imitation of the Indian double-reed instrument the shenai. Many of the songs have long introductions, interludes and postludes, where the writing becomes more symphonic than mere accompaniment." The present edition is the vocal score for voice and piano.

Composer Richard Blackford writes of this work: "The inspiration for my Toccata was the pervasive dotted rhythm found in the third variation of the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata 32 Opus 111, which commentators have described as a precursor to swing music. Constructed in reverse sonata form the opening dotted theme is made up entirely of major and minor thirds, implying an F-sharp minor/F-sharp major tonality. A contrasting motif, repeated G-sharps, forms the second subject on top of the persistent dotted rhythm. In the development section the main theme is presented in canon and soon leads to a thundering version of the repeated G-sharps, now in pounding octave bass with heavy right hand syncopation. The principle theme begins a series of transformations, expanding it's major/minor thirds to fourths, and fifths. After a short interlude marked Andante the "pounding theme" re-appears softly at first, heralding the recapitulation. A new motif in "pushed" jazz rhythm leads to an accelerando and extended re-statement of the "pounding" theme. The principle theme bursts through in the bass, then in full two part counterpoint before cascading downwards to an exuberant conclusion."

Composer Richard Blackford writes of his Five Naidu Songs for Mezzo Soprano: "Sarojini Naidu's poems cover a wide range of human experience, from love, ecstasy, delight in the natural world, loneliness, acceptance and praise. These five poems form a cycle of one Indian woman's experience of lost love, delight in a colourful procession, the thrill of new young love, contemplation of death, and ecstasy at the beauty of creation and the omnipresence of God. Her poetry pulsates with her love of Indian landscapes, seasons and flowers, simple joys, devotion and the splendor of Indian festivals. I chose an accompaniment of string quartet and clarinet to extend and enhance the richness of Naidu's imagery and the passion she evokes. The clarinet, like a second melodic voice, weaves around the vocal line, sometimes sensuous, sometimes raucous and abandoned, in imitation of the Indian double-reed instrument the shenai. Many of the songs have long introductions, interludes and postludes, where the writing becomes more symphonic than mere accompaniment." The present edition is the full score with instrumental parts.

Murmuration describes the delicate sound of tens of thousands of wings created by migrating starlings as they congregate at dusk and form stupendous patterns in the sky. Richard Blackford writes in his performance notes: "The players should try to avoid accenting the first notes of each group. For the overlapping sections they should try to match each other dynamically as much as possible and thereby create a seamless texture." Richard Blackford has written extensively for the theatre, and his credits include The Laborers of Herakles, The Kaisers of Carnuntum, The Prince's Play, The Pig Organ, Follow My Leader, and others. Both of his critically acclaimed choral works- Mirror Of Perfection and Voices of Exile- were the subjects of television documentaries and have been frequently broadcast on Classic FM and BBC Radio 3.

The history of music is, in many ways, an assemblage of occasional compositions. Since the rise of art pour l'art in the nineteenth century, classical music purports to be abstract, but in the longer arc, compositions connect to specific occasions: a coronation, a requiem mass, a religious feast, a dinner party, a regal celebration. Such occasions and commissions present challenges-not least for the composer charged with responding to the myriad consequences of the world's first nuclear reaction. Does one focus on the (positive) reverberations in cancer treatment, power, and science? Does one focus on the (negative) reverberations in bombs, death, waste, and perpetual threats of war? In Plea for Peace, these consequences are inextricable. The clean perfect intervals that begin and end the work give rise to both expansionist leaps and cocooning retractions. The soloist's elegant, wordless vocalise weaves in and out of the string quartet's sustained harmonies in graceful counterpoint, drawing us closer to our common humanity. Simple harmonies slowly transform, becoming rich and complex at the insistent, dramatic climax: a wordless scream from the soul. As the music's opening glow returns, the voice seamlessly dovetailing with the strings, we return to the sonic space of meditation, reflecting on an absolute plea for lasting peace.

Graeme Humphrey writes: "The first time I heard Milo� Milivojevic play at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the sound of the free- bass accordion was new to me and thrilling to hear, but it was the repertoire that gave me the greatest pause for thought. Music for keyboard (whether harpsichord, clavichord or organ) was now being played on what is essentially a wind instrument. I quickly learned that not all music would successfully transcribe to this 'new' instrument. Beethoven and Brahms would be completely out of place in such transcriptions, but there was a considerable body of 'old' music that was sufficiently all-purpose as to become exciting and 'new', especially in the hands of such a creative artist as Milos. Then there were the truly new composers of the twentieth century who were writing for the instrument and exploiting the unique sound characteristics of both classical and free-bass accordions. In the case of the classical accordion, the sheer sight of two hands (120 buttons on the left hand keyboard completely hidden from the performer's view, 58 buttons on the right hand side only occasionally looked at in performance) weaving miracles of tightly-packed movement was, of itself, a fascinating and breath-taking visual experience." This new release is a showcase of that experience, featuring works by Mendelssohn, Scarlatti, and others.

Following a long and rich tradition of composers who wrote for percussion (Edgard Varese, Harry Partch and John Cage, Lou Harrison) over the past 30 years, Augusta has composed extensively for percussion designing works including concerto for percussion quartet and orchestra, percussion playing bells from all around the world, quartets, solos, and two octets for percussion and string quartet. Additionally, many of her 65 orchestral works feature percussion.

Following a long and rich tradition of composers who wrote for percussion (Edgard Varese, Harry Partch and John Cage, Lou Harrison) over the past 30 years, Augusta has composed extensively for percussion designing works including concerto for percussion quartet and orchestra, percussion playing bells from all around the world, quartets, solos, and two octets for percussion and string quartet. Additionally, many of her 65 orchestral works feature percussion.

Classical Music

Classical Music