SKU: HL.14001903

ISBN 9788759859605. Danish.

Animals In Concert - Three pieces for Piano solo by Per Norgard. Programme Note  1. A Tortoise's Tango (1984) - dur.: 4'  2. Light of a Night - Paul meets bird (1989) - dur.: 6'  3. Hermit Crab Tango - Esperanza (1997) - dur.: 5'   The pieces can be performed together or one by one. In the1980s, quite a few finds turned up in Per Norgard's music. The material could be, say, a number of song birds' equilibrist melodic lines, the overtones of the ocean surf, or waltzing themes by the schizophrenic artist Adolf Wolfli (1864-1930). Or again, as heard here, it can be the rhythms and motifs of the tango and a Beatles song (with bird), explored in three independent piano pieces that form the Animals in Concert suite, about which the composer writes:  A Tortoise's Tango: The tortoise as tango dancer must presumably possess certain rhythmic peculiarities, which I have chosen to express by letting the tune of the tortoise shuffle broadly, tripartite through the strict four partite time of tango.  Tortoise Tango was the original title of this piece, written for Achilles (the pianist Yvar Mikhashoff), for his so called tango project, including new tangos for piano by composers from all over the world.  Light of a Night (Paul meets bird) was commissioned by pianist Aki Takahashi. It is a reworked arrangement for piano of the Beatles song Blackbird. As some of us will recall, the Beatles on The White Album let the beautiful song to the blackbird be accompanied by an (apparently) live blackbird song. It is this authentic bird-motif world that in Light of a Night weaves itself into the Beatles melody and in turn is gradually infected by it, so that a completely new third entity ensues: a kind of Bird-rock ballad (or maybe it is a Beatle-bird?).  Hermit Crab Tango (Esperanza): The tango situation is quite special for a Hermit Crab. It is a well-known fact that the hermit crab - this soft animal - must run the gauntlet among the many perils at the bottom of the sea when it must move hose. I have chosen to express the angers by a tango pattern - sharp as a cactus - through which the tune, optimistic, slips to its new shelter. I have borrowed the tune from songwriter Hanne Methling's Introduction: 'I want to get through this time!' she sings in a ecstatically ascending melody line - and I believe that these words must correspond very well to the mood of the hermit crab: 'Esperanza'- the green runners of hope wind among the latticework formed by the tango rows.

SKU: SU.80101244

This is an extended concert work (55 minutes) for solo piano. The work is set in a very long and freely-expressed rondo form. Throughout the duration of the piece there are four of five main ideas that are continually repeated and developed. There is much use of fast, cascading passages and tone clusters, but these are firmly contrasted with soft melody passages. The great white cosmic light is expressed by continual tremolando passages which reach their culmination at the very end of this long and expansive work.

SKU: HL.50601940

UPC: 888680939540.

SKU: BT.EMBZ5411

English-German.

The history of Liszt's intensely virtuosic and unwaveringly popular Transcendental Etudes dates back to his 12 Etudes composed around 1826. Liszt later reworked 11 pieces of this not-so-technically-difficult series into virtuoso concert etudes, and replaced one of the etudes with a new piece. This version was published in 1837 under the name Grandes études. However, Liszt reworked these 12 big etudes again: the final version of the series - in which, with two exceptions, the pieces were titled - was published in 1851 under the series title Études d exécution transcendante. Transcendental Etudes was the very first volume of the New Liszt Complete Critical Edition, and it wasfirst published in 1970 based on the previous editions of the work. This edition includes footnotes highlighting common performance difficulties as well as English and German forewords, facsimiles, and critical notes in English.

SKU: PR.110418370

ISBN 9781491135075. UPC: 680160686247.

Composed as an organ solo by the 17-year-old Ives for his own performance purposes, the beloved Variations on America is a treat for any occasion, whether a holiday concert, a serious recital, or other special event. Danny Holt’s transcription for Piano, Four Hands adds a dazzling new option to play at home or on stage, taking best advantage of Ives’ tremendous contrasts in color, dynamics, and texture.
Composed when Charles Ives was a teenager, Variations on “America” is both a convenient introduction to Ives’ body of work, and an early example of his iconoclastic musical voice and creative genius. Just a few years after composing this piece, Ives would leave home to study music at Yale. But until then he had been taught by his father, George (who had been a bandmaster in the Civil War). George subjected the young Ives to experiments such as singing a song in one key while being accompanied in another, or arranging for two marching bands to converge on a town center, with the resulting cacophony that ensued.The Variations exemplifies an early period of experimentation in Ives’ work, spurred on by the unusual pedagogy of his father. The piece is particularly notable for its use of bitonality in the two interludes, subtly foreshadowing more well-known examples by Stravinsky, Bartók, and others by approximately two decades.The bitonal interludes were so ahead of their time, in fact, they were omitted from the first copy that was submitted to a publisher in 1892. (Alas, the piece was rejected even despite these “shocking” elements having been left out, and it wasn’t published until more than five decades later.) There is some ambiguity about when exactly Ives added the interludes into his manuscript copy, though ample evidence suggests he had performed the piece with the interludes around the time he notated the piece in 1891-92. In any case, in light of this piece and his other polytonal explorations from the last decade of the 19th century, it seems fair to give Ives credit for being a pioneer in this area!This arrangement for Piano, Four Hands, closely follows Ives’ original version for organ, setting aside William Schuman’s popular adaptation for symphony orchestra and William Rhoads’ band transcription of the Schuman orchestration. Pianists will find that the piece translates well to the instrument. Ideally, the choreography and logistics of elbow-to-elbow four-hands playing approximates the wild joy one gets from watching an organist play the piece (e.g., the elaborate pedal part in the final variation).In preparing this publication, attention was paid to details in the dual Critical Editions (Presser 443-41003) of both Ives’ manuscript edition and the 1949 publication edited by organist E. Power Biggs (who is credited with discovering what had been a long-lost, forgotten work.) But as with much of Ives’ output, attempting to create a true ‘urtext’ score is a futile endeavor, and especially with a piece such as this one – in which Ives incorporated improvisation in live performance – seems unnecessary anyhow. True die-hards are of course encouraged to consult the critical editions and even find inspiration in the orchestrated version. Generally, performers are advised to be wild, have fun, and not to be too rigid in their interpretive choices.Dynamics in this arrangement mostly follow the organ score closely. Pianists will use good judgment about pedaling throughout, which should be straightforward and intuitive. Courtesy accidentals have been provided frequently – without parentheses – balancing the need for extra clarity in the context of Ives’ murky musical language, and a desire to avoid unnecessary clutter.A few notes that might inform interpretive decisions:mm. 15-16: There are inconsistencies here between Ives’ original manuscript and the 1949 Biggs edition, regarding the top voice in m. 15, beat 3 (C# vs. Cn) and m. 16 (D Major vs. D Minor).mm. 76-84 & 143-146: In both Interludes, Ives emphatically notates extreme dynamic contrast, in order to highlight the bitonality. Although it may seem counterintuitive (or even a misprint, as has apparently been misconstrued by some), performers are urged to follow the composer’s marking!m. 109: Two-note slurs have been added here for clarity and consistency with other similar passages, though they do not appear in either the original manuscript or Biggs.m. 112: The last two eighth notes of Primo appear as 16ths in the original manuscript.mm. 183-186: The original manuscript has a slightly different bass line.mm. 184 & 186: Primo gestures have been re-written to be slightly more idiomatic for Piano, Four Hands.m. 186: The breath mark at the end of this bar does not appear in either the manuscript or Biggs, but is an editorial suggestion – aside from being appropriately dramatic, it will indeed be necessary in a reverberant hall!I would like to thank Steven Vanhauwaert, the other half of my piano duo, 4handsLA, for his input on early drafts of this arrangement.— Danny Holt, April 2022.