Quartet For Piano And Strings

Ed Hughes' Secret Sky for Piano Quartet.Secret Sky was commissioned by the Schubert Ensemble's Chamber Music 2000 project and has been performed by school children in the south west of England and in the Purcell Room by music college students. The piece lasts 4 minutes and aims to create an evocative sound scape through pools of modal harmony created by a mix of piano repeating patterns and melodies in the 3 strings. As in all my work the ebb and flow of line is important to the development tensions and resolutions of the piece. The piece is probably suitable for players of the standard of at least Grade 6. It can be performed either by violin viola cello andpiano or by 2 violins cello and piano. - Ed HughesCommission made possible by Michael McLaren for his daughter Iona McLaren.

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arranged for Oboe and Piano-The Oboe Quartet in F major K. 370/368b was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in early 1781. The quartet originally arranged for oboe violin viola and cello is presented in this edition for Oboe with Piano accompaniment. In 1780 Mozart was invited to Munich to visit Elector Karl Theodor who had commissioned the opera Idomeneo for a carnival celebration. While in Munich Mozart renewed an acquaintance with Friedrich Ramm a virtuoso oboist in the Munich orchestra. It was for Ramm that Mozart composed the quartet in order to show off his virtuosity and the improvements that had been made to the oboe at that time. One way that this piece showed off theinstrument was the use of the 'high F' above the staff a note rarely played in any repertoire previously written for the oboe. This piece is a work of chamber music but it has elements that harken to other musical genres and requires a fair amount of virtuosity. Because of its large amount of virtuosic playing on the part of the oboe and the large degree to which the strings simply accompany the oboist it almost resembles a concerto but with only with four players instead of an entire orchestra. Despite this there are also a number of places within the work that require ensemble playing for example the famous 13-bar passage in the finale in which the oboe plays in common time against a 6/8 accompaniment.

Jack Brymer premièred this work originally called 'Sopsonare' in 1973 at the American School at St. John's Wood playing on Michael Krein's Selmer soprano saxophone. This Sonata the first composition for saxophone by Colin Cowles was inspired by the acquisition of a soprano saxophone whilst teaching in Hemel Hempstead in the early 1970s. Although having played on a simple system soprano as a boy (an instrument borrowed from and taught him by his father) this re-introduction to the instrument was to kindle a life-long love of the complete saxophone family and the composition of an almost endless 'library' of works for it at all levels. It was also at a time whenthe composers had made recent acquaintance with the eminent saxophonist Peter Ripper and had been introduced to the saxophone quartet by the recently formed London Saxophone Quartet whose leader Paul Harvey was to play this Sonata and the Elegy for Soprano Saxophone and String Orchestra. He in fact premiered the latter work which Jack Brymer then played in public on a number of occasions. It was recorded by Peter Ripper with the composer at the piano at the BBC Maida Vale Studios. It is a totally non-esoteric work but like so much of the composer's music it is fun and approachable bearing repetition without becoming tedious. The composer has always favoured the Bb saxophones (soprano and tenor) which is reflected by his output. Of particular note are: • Concerto for Tenor Saxophone and Orchestra• In Memoriam for Tenor Saxophone and String Orchestra• Sonata for Tenor Saxophone and Piano • Three Bala Sketches for Tenor Saxophone and Piano. This Sonata for Soprano Saxophone and Piano and the Elegy for Soprano Saxophone and Strings are particular favourites of the composer.

Piers Hellawell's A White Room for Piano Quartet.a white room was the second short piece to be commissioned by the Schubert Ensemble for Chamber Music 2000. It was written in spring of 1999 during the composition of Inside Story a double concerto for the 1999 BBC Proms. a white room complements its predecessor in that it is a hushed scherzo rather than a slow aria; the latter type was by 1999 becoming rather prevalent among Chamber Music 2000 commissions and the Schubert Ensemble suggested that I tackle the challenge of writing 'easy' fast music. It turned out to be a challenge indeed; my solution to creating rapid movement using players of unknown technique wasto employ ostinato repetition of simple fragments largely using open strings - materials of a sort that in any case feature in my wider musical language. In addition I supplemented the rhythmic drive by percussive drumming on piano and cello (also aspects typical of me).These features add up to a sound picture in which rhythmic momentum predominates over line - though a chorale fragment persistently tries to establish itself. The title a white room indicates that this piece is an uncluttered space a location in sound perhaps free of the more exotic images in Hall Of Mirrors. - Piers HellawellCommission made possible by Keith Nimmo.