Twelve Little Preludes

SKU: BT.CM168

Twelve Astrological Preludes were written over a period of roughly two years and several were broadcast on BBC Radio 2's Friday Night is Music Night as well as in other concerts. Aquarius was written in 1994 as a filler to apopular BBC solo piano series of the time called At the Piano. It was named Aquarius for programming purposes and as Elms left the studio the producer called after him 'Only eleven to go' and so Twelve Astrological Preludes cameinto being.

The preludes, which run in the usual cycle, are based upon two melodic strands and there is one piece in each of the twelve major keys. The character and style of each
prelude alludes to certaincharactertraits of its particular birth sign and each piece bears the initials of a friend born under that particular sign.
Each prelude is prefaced by a printed description of some of the general characteristics deemed to beassociated with that sign. These are, of course, generalisations! Some preludes show a little deference to some of my favourite 'masters'.

Elms has recorded Twelve Astrological Preludes for the Herald label and they areavailable on the CD Moody Moves together with other pieces of his chamber music including the piano sextet from which the CD takes its name. More information is available at masterkeyboards.co.uk.

SKU: BR.EB-9355

ISBN 9790004188194. 9 x 12 inches.

Little Cadenzas, Canons and Preludes for Pianoforte, an album of 36 piano miniatures in all keys of the circle of fifths and in church modes, as well as two preludes by Eusebius Mandyczewski (1857-1929) that modulate through all keys, are presented here for the first time in print. Mandyczewski, who went down in music history as a Brahms friend, editor and archivist of the Vienna Musikverein, composed numerous vocal and piano works, including twelve Orthodox liturgies and two cycles of variations on themes by George Frideric Handel. The album, a birthday present from the composer to his twelve-year-old daughter Virginia, was written in the middle of the First World War and was not premiered publicly until a century later - after the manuscript was found in a Ukrainian library - at the Mandyczewski Festival in Chernivtsi (Ukraine) in 2017. Mandyczewski shows himself here as a master of the small form and counterpoint, but also as a demanding teacher - and so the pieces, once reserved for his daughter, will now be made accessible to a wider circle of young musicians to enjoy.