STUDY SCORES
Stravinsky, Funeral Song Op. 5
Boosey & Hawkes/Schott BH 13357, £14.99
Anderson, Julian, The Imaginary Museum (2017)
Schott ED 14002, £33.99
Mendelssohn, Concerto for violin, piano and orchestra in D minor, MWV 004: version for full orchestra
Breitkopf PB 5613, £13.45
Dvořák, Terzetto in C, Op. 74 (for 2 violins and viola)
Henle HN 7235, £7.50
Ravel, Introduction and Allegro, for harp, flute, clarinet and string quartet
Henle HN 7069, £9.99
Unbelievably, Stravinsky's ‘Funeral Song’ has not been published before, as Stravinsky's orchestral homage to his teacher Rimsky-Korsakov premiered in 1909 and was then lost until 2015. The subsequent detective work is well-documented in this new score and online. It recalls the opening of The Firebird and mono-thematicists will enjoy the pervasive chorale tune.
Conversely, Julian Anderson's piano concerto The Imaginary Museum, premiered by Steven Osborne in 2017, has not had long to wait. Anderson warns that, due to the many revisions, the score ‘should not be used for performance’. It's a valuable document nevertheless, if small at A4. Scoring includes a synthesiser part tuned a quarter-tone away from the soloist and harp strings activated now and again by – of all things – milk foamers, sounding not unlike a cimbalom.
Mendelssohn's nattering concerto may be unfamiliar, except to specialists. As with his String Symphony No.8, he added wind and timpani in future performance, printed here for the first time. This offers opportunities for guess-then-check exercises: students listen to the string version then imagine what the wind players might add before looking it up. Nothing is transferred from strings to wind, with all extra parts remaining optional.
The Dvořák Terzetto is more familiar, and not just to quartet players missing a cellist. A delightful piece, scrupulously edited to be clear enough to play from at arm's length, should anyone have left their part behind.
Ravel's ‘Introduction and Allegro’, the go-to piece for chamber music newcomers, was written to display the seven-pedal Érard harp, and Ravel is rumoured to have used, en route, every pedal in every possible position. This would be easier to check if pedal changes were printed, as they are in older editions – Henle's desire ‘to avoid overloading the score’ carries editorial cleaning-up too far, to orchestration students’ loss.
PIANO TRIO/DUOS WITH PIANO
Chausson, Piano Trio Op. 3
Henle 1277, £26.50
Ravel, Sonata in G, violin and piano
Henle Urtext HN 1271, £16.95
Tchaikovsky, Valse-Scherzo, violin and piano, Op. 34
Henle 1273, £12.99
Jenkins, Karl, Chatterbox! for violin and piano
Boosey & Hawkes/Schott BH 13298, £9.99
Hindemith, Kleine Sonate, for cello and piano
Schott ED 8186, £11.50
Piano trio teams dissatisfied with early César Franck will welcome this passionate half-hour substitute by his pupil, Ernest Chausson. The relentless piano part is as difficult as Franck's violin sonata. New listeners could start with the whirlwind scherzo, second of four movements. Henle is as careful as ever.
Ravel's violin sonata is a good lesson in bitonality, with some 1920s jazz for good measure. Be warned: Tchaikovsky's ‘Valse-Scherzo’ showpiece, whether with piano or orchestral accompaniment, is normally cut down to 332 bars. Henle restores its original length (569 bars) – editorially invaluable but problematic if the traditional version is all the violinist knows. As with the Ravel, two copies of the violin part are included.
The Jenkins also exists with orchestral accompaniment: the perpetual-motion violin part is not only virtuosic but quite awkward, while the piano part could be learned in ten seconds. The Hindemith, not to be confused with several, similarly-titled works, was written as a wedding present in 1942. Neither part is too hard, but the overall effect is sombre considering the blissful domestic background.
