Poul Ruders: Piano Concerto No.2: Piano: Score

SKU: HL.233151

ISBN 9788759886427. 10.0x14.5 inches. English.

Piano solo part for Paganini Variations - Piano Concerto No.3 by Poul Ruders (2014). Score available: WH32201 Programme note: In 1999 my friend, American guitar virtuoso David Starobin, wanted me to write a concerto for guitar and orchestra. It quickly dawned on me, that this commission presented a golden opportunity to contribute to the time-honoured tradition of composing a series of variations on Nicolo Paganini's famous 24th Caprice for violin solo, a work which itself is a set of variations. The 16 bar (with the first 4 bars repeated) theme is not particularly sophisticated or intricate, but its inherent simplicity and logic just grow on you, almost to the point ofdistraction - and the secret behind it being hauled through the wringer by composers as disparate as Liszt, Brahms, Rachmaninoff and Lutoslawski is perhaps found in its - what I'll call, with a quick nervous look over my shoulder: brilliant banality. You can do anything with that tune, it'll always be recognizable and just there, however much you maul it. The piece (subtitled Guitar Concerto no 2) was written pretty quickly, premiered and subsequently recorded for Bridge Records with David and the Odense Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jan Wagner, and everybody was happy. But the story didn't end there, and it must be the ultimate proof of the durability of the theme, not to mention the flexibility and far-sightedness of David Starobin , when he 14 years later suggested why not transcribe the solo part for piano?. The idea appealed to me immediately. One thing was clear from the beginning: the new version could in no way sound like a transcription. My aim was to end up with a solo-part sounding like were it the one-and-only, the real thing, if you like. The orchestral score remains exactly the same in both cases. Both versions, the two Paganini Variations, are comparable to a set of twins, not quite identical, but almost. And both each others's equal. Poul Ruders.

SKU: HL.14028003

ISBN 9788759862896.

Poul Ruders Polydrama (Manyfold Event) for cello and orchestra, is the last part of a drama trilogy otherwise consisting of Dramaphonia for piano and 11 instruments and Monodrama for percussion and 32 instruments. In this abstract drama, the individual listener is left entirely to his own associations. The composer has compared polydrama with the gradual defoliation of a big tree: the vigorously growing organism is attacked by a swarm of locusts until, finally, nothing remains but bare branches in a landscape of long shadows; a solitary, singing bird remains, however, like a streak of hope in an increasingly dark and pessimistic universe.

SKU: HL.14027971

ISBN 9788759859360. English.

Break-Dance is an obvious next of kin to the two Clarinet trios Vox In Rama and Tattoo For Three. This piece, however, combines the roaring despair of the first trio with the twisted rhythmical display of the latter. The title, of course, is a reference to the modern street-dance electric boogie, but the very music itself takes the naming most literally indeed: formally and rhythmically, after a straightforward head-on opening, it breaks into isolated, jagged fragments, winding up in a bouncing piano cadenza. Albeit not an obvious piano concerto, the piano part hovers in the front line, the same way the horizontal guy, ringing himself on the pavement, is doubtless an eye-catcher to passers-by. The springy 'body-language' that kicks off the piece suddenly stiffens and freezes into hard-edged blocks and the real 'dance of breaks' emerges into focus. Break-dance is commissioned by and dedicated to Yvar Mikhashoff and Spectrum. Arranged for 2 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, and Piano.

SKU: HL.14027976

ISBN 9788759870679. 12.0x16.5x0.52 inches. English.