SKU: HL.50512037

ISBN 9790080147795. UPC: 884088668723. 9.0x12.0x0.079 inches. Ferenc Liszt; Boldizsar Csiky.

The arranger of this work (a well-known Hungarian composer living in Romania) writes: +This piece has always excited my imagination, from several points of view. First of all, its name. The German title, the obstinate one, may refer to its ostinato character. This is close to Liszt's programme concept, but the French word 'obstine' is closer in meaning to stubborn. There is just a shade of difference, but to me it is important, because the latter suggests the description of a type of behaviour, the emotional state of a dancer's inner frame of mind abstracted into movements, expressed in dance movements, and this is a fascinating interpretation. The demonstration of stubborn resistance and defiance to the point of exhaustion was not a frequently occurring phenomenon with Liszt. Secondly, at the beginning of the seventies Zoltan Kocsis played the piece in Transylvania. At that time, I asked the composer, +Is the character of the continuous staccato in the left hand sharp, short, or an accompanying background like a constant shadow? Is it a weighty Brahmsian staccato, an ominous knocking? - and so on. Then there are the Bartokian false relations that keep recurring in the work, the B-E flat-G, etc. That foreshadows Debussy, creating harmonic thrills that, when I hear the work, keep my continuing interest alive for it. Finally, my immediate reason for arranging the work was of a family nature: in connection with Liszt's jubilee year, my daughter, who is a cellist, wanted a 'more energetic' piece to play at a bicentenary concert an addition to the existing slow, lyrical, or sombre works written by Liszt for the cello.+.

SKU: BR.PB-5622-07

With his first String Quartet in D minor, op. 77, composed in 1855, the native Swiss composer Joachim Raff (1822-1882) bid a brilliant farewell to Weimar.

ISBN 9790004215197. 6.5 x 9 inches.

With his first String Quartet in D minor, op. 77, composed in 1855, the native Swiss composer Joachim Raff bid a brilliant farewell to Weimar. He had been there as Franz Liszt's assistant since 1850 and had made a name for himself in the city's art scene - now he embarked on new paths. He composed his second Quartet in A major, op. 90, already in 1857 in Wiesbaden, the spa town that was to become his home for 21 years. The two quartets are unequivocal works: orchestrally-conceived, full of energetic vigor, and at times uncompromisingly modern. They confidently continue the Beethoven tradition and attest at the same time to Raff's intensive confrontation with Richard Wagner's music during the Weimar years. In his chamber music, the composer wanted to achieve progress in an inherently historical way and to ground the individual substance in existing forms, as he told the Viennese violinist Josef Hellmesberger, who launched opus 77. The quartets, first published in 1860/62, found illustrious interpreters, among them, the Muller brothers' renowned ensemble, to which opus 90 was also dedicated, and Joseph Joachim.In collaboration with the Joachim-Raff-Archiv Lachen (CH)

Some eighteen years elapsed between Raff's first counted String Quartet op. 77 and his Quartets Nos. 6-8 op. 192, combined as one work. As such, Raff parted with the weighty single opus in quartet composition - without, however, sacrificing musical quality.

SKU: BR.PB-5622

ISBN 9790004215197. 6.5 x 9 inches.

With his first String Quartet in D minor, op. 77, composed in 1855, the native Swiss composer Joachim Raff bid a brilliant farewell to Weimar. He had been there as Franz Liszt's assistant since 1850 and had made a name for himself in the city's art scene - now he embarked on new paths. He composed his second Quartet in A major, op. 90, already in 1857 in Wiesbaden, the spa town that was to become his home for 21 years. The two quartets are unequivocal works: orchestrally-conceived, full of energetic vigor, and at times uncompromisingly modern. They confidently continue the Beethoven tradition and attest at the same time to Raff's intensive confrontation with Richard Wagner's music during the Weimar years. In his chamber music, the composer wanted to achieve progress in an inherently historical way and to ground the individual substance in existing forms, as he told the Viennese violinist Josef Hellmesberger, who launched opus 77. The quartets, first published in 1860/62, found illustrious interpreters, among them, the Muller brothers' renowned ensemble, to which opus 90 was also dedicated, and Joseph Joachim.In collaboration with the Joachim-Raff-Archiv Lachen (CH)

Some eighteen years elapsed between Raff's first counted String Quartet op. 77 and his Quartets Nos. 6-8 op. 192, combined as one work. As such, Raff parted with the weighty single opus in quartet composition - without, however, sacrificing musical quality.