Novello - Orchestra

Commissioned by Novello and Company Ltd for 'Music for Today' Series. Scored for 2121/2210/timp perc/strings.

'I responded to this exciting but rather daunting commission by writing a very lively and I hope very accessible piece which I decided before I started composing should be full of tunes. I wrote it in memory of my dear friend Sheila MacCrindle who died in 1993... although this Partita is in her memory it never occurred to me to make it gloomy or dirge-like; that is not how I remember her.' Richard Rodney Bennett.Partita for Orchestra by Richard Rodney Bennett was commissioned by British Telecommunications plc in co-operation with the Association of British Orchestras to be performed byseventeen different orchestras between October 1995 and July 1996.Duration: c.17 mins.

Aulis Sallinen was born in 1935 in Salmi on the northern shore of Lake Ladoga (which the Soviet Union claimed in 1944). His early musical experience was playing the violin. Improvising (including jazz) on the piano led him to write his first compositions as a teenager. After studying with Aarre Merikanto and Joonas Kokkonen at the Sibelius Academy he joined the staff there. He was Administrator of the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (1960-69); Secretary and member of the Board (1958-73) then Chairman (1971-73) of the Finnish Composers' Society; member of the board of TEOSTO (Finnish copyright society) from 1970-84 then Chairman from 1988-90; he also served for severalyears on the Board of the Finnish National Opera.Here is the Facsimile of the Sixth Symphony that was composed over 1989-1990 and commissioned and first performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

Symphony No. 8 was commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The first performances took place at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam on 16 and 17 April 2004 by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Paavo Järvi.

Scherzi was commissioned by the BBC for the 70th Anniversary concert of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and was first performed at the Barbican by the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin October 22 2000.

For Chamber Orchestra (Flute Oboe Cor Anglais Basson Horn in F Trumpet in C Strings: [5.4.3.2.1])Composer's Programme Note:Points of View is a work about the different musical elements which arepersonified by soloists from the orchestra all unifying at the end in a passionateclimax.The first section ‘Mysterious’ features a solo horn and also establishes tonality [Bflat] texture and harmony. The harmonies are often chordal 6-note clusters andthey are an important binding articulating and textual element throughout thework.A solo trumpet joins the solo horn and as the chordal clusters disappearintothe stratosphere initiates the rhythm of a light-hearted scherzo ‘Lively’. Thetrumpet’s rhythmic figure is echoed and developed by the winds.The solo oboe and cor anglais now introduce a very lyrical melody in fallingthirds ‘Sensuous’. The chordal clusters as well as the trumpet’s rhythmic figureeventually reappear to accompany this melodic theme and then the violinspassionately respond by taking it over ‘Passionato’. All the elements thusunifying to culminate in the coda.These elements could also perhaps be described in non-musical terms as‘imagination’ [solo horn] ‘action’ [solo trumpet] ‘emotion’ [solo oboe and coranglais] which eventually combine in the climax [violins].

Whistle Down The Wind Small Suite For Small Orchestra is three-movement suite Prelude The Three Kings Finale played as one continuous piece. Its melodic charm and instrumentation including vibraphone glockenspiel and chimes effectively evokes the innocence of the main characters of the film. Malcolm Arnold was a British composer who earned an international reputation both as a composer of serious works including nine symphonies and as a composer of light music. He composed more than one hundred film scores among them the Oscar-winning music for The Bridge on the River Kwai the award-winning music for The Inn of the Sixth Happiness and Hobson’s Choice. Malcolm said that his favourite film composition however was the one for Whistle Down the Wind.

Tarik O' Regan's Corsair for amplified Oud and Orchestra. Based on themes from 'Acallam na Senórach' and 'Cha bi'.