{"product_id":"sibelius-britten-barber-part-romanza-music-for-string","title":"Sibelius, Britten, Barber \u0026 Part: Romanza - Music for String","description":"This album features two compositions  by Jean Sibelius from different  moments in the Finnish musician's life.  The Impromptu Op.5 for string  ensemble is an early work from 1894, in  which Sibelius uses some thematic  materials from his solo piano  impromptus Nos. 5 and 6 from the Op.5  set. The Romance in C Op.42 (1903) was  composed during a difficult phase in the  composer's life caused by excessive  alcohol consumption, which prompted  him to leave Helsinki and move with his  wife near to Lake Tuusula, where he  could dedicate himself to composition  far from the temptations of the Finnish  capital. The piece is divided into short  sections in which the melodic ideas  arise from fragments of the octatonic,  or diminished, scale of alternating  whole and half steps supported by  dissonant harmonies that add further  tonal instability.  Samuel Barber's typically inspired  melodic vein emerges from the very  beginning in his Serenade Op.1 for String  Quartet or String Orchestra, dating from 1928.  Featuring chromaticism's and dissonant  passages, a duality is established between a  first, rhythmic and impetuous thematic idea  and a lyrical melody. The final movement  brings greater serenity and joy through the  choice of a major mode and the adoption of a  graceful and leaping theme whose fragments  pass in counterpoint between one voice and  another.  When Benjamin Britten composed his Simple  Symphony Op.4 he was just 20 years old, and  he describes the idea in an introduction to the  score: 'This \"Simple Symphony\" is entirely  based on material from works which the  composer wrote between the ages of nine  and twelve [.]. Although the development of  these themes is in many places quite new,  there are large stretches of the work which  are taken bodily from the early pieces - save  for the re-scoring for strings'. In effect, Britten  extrapolates eight themes from his juvenile  compositional production, associates two of  them with each movement and creates a  structural mix between the four movements of  a Classical symphony, the dances of the  Baroque suite and popular folklore.  Da pacem Domine is a Gregorian style piece  composed by Arvo P�rt in 2004 to  commemorate the victims of the Madrid  terrorist attacks on trains, which killed 192  people. P�rt first composed a version for four  voices on the text of a Latin prayer. That  atmosphere of contemplation is preserved in  his subsequent edition for chamber orchestra.  The modal composition, in D Dorian, conveys  the feeling of a search for calmness, a request  from man to God for peace in the wake of such  a tragedy. Scattered appearances of B flat and  the leading tone (C sharp) mitigate and add a  piquancy to the modal atmosphere.","brand":"Brilliant Classics","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":49704741929240,"sku":"5028421970578","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0687\/4346\/3192\/files\/4344103-3187711.jpg?v=1777503493","url":"https:\/\/hbdirect.com\/products\/sibelius-britten-barber-part-romanza-music-for-string","provider":"HBDirect","version":"1.0","type":"link"}