| Praeludium | |
|---|---|
| Piano piece by Graham Waterhouse | |
 The composer in 2011 | |
| Opus | 32 |
| Composed | 1992 |
| Performed | 1993: London |
| Published | 2002 |
Praeludium (Prelude), Op. 32, is a piece for piano by Graham Waterhouse, composed in 1992 and published by Lienau in 2002. The virtuoso composition has been played in concert internationally, and was recorded.
Waterhouse composed the piano piece in 1992. [1] [2] It premiered in London in 1993. Praeludium was published by Lienau in 2002. [1]
Praeludium is written in one movement, in common time, marked Allegro agitato. [3] A rhythmic-chromatic theme is contrasted by a lyrical one, culminating in a virtuoso coda. [1] The duration is given as six minutes. [4] A 2005 review in Neue Musikzeitung , comparing newly published music for pianists, described the piece as "a dramatic concert piece with gushing figurations, lyrical insertions, polyphonic elements, harmonic refinement and a purposefully intensified enormous conclusion" ("... dramatisches Konzertstück mit sprudelnden Figurationen, lyrischen Einschüben, polyphonen Elementen, harmonischen Raffinessen und einem zielstrebig gesteigerten, enormen Schluss"). [4]
The cover of the published music of Praeludium shows the composer's signature. It was included in overviews of his work on CD and concert. It was recorded in 2001 as the first piece of Portrait, a selection of the composer's chamber music by Cybele Records, played by Michael Wendeberg. The CD also includes compositions such as Three Pieces for Solo Cello and the trio Gestural Variations . [5] Reviewer Hubert Culot described it as brilliant and virtuoso. [6]
Christopher White played the piece to open a composer portrait concert at the Gasteig in Munich on 11 April 2010. [7] The program also featured vocal music including the premiere of Im Gebirg, a song setting a poem by Hans Krieger, and a selection from Piano Album . [7] The piece was part of programs on the occasion of the composer's 50th birthday in London, Munich and Frankfurt, featuring performances of chamber music by members of the Munich Philharmonic. A review in the Süddeutsche Zeitung of the concert at the Gasteig on 4 November 2012 was titled "Hochexpressiv" (Highly expressive). Reinhard Palmer wrote in the magazine Neue Musikzeitung , that Valentina Babor played Praeludium with bracchial thunder. [8] The piece notably opened GW60, a concert on 5 November 2022 at the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche in Munich to celebrate the composer's 60th birthday. [9] : 4 [10] it was performed by Nuron Mukumi. [9] : 5
Graham Waterhouse is an English composer and cellist who specializes in chamber music. He has composed a cello concerto, Three Pieces for Solo Cello and Variations for Cello Solo for his own instrument, and string quartets and compositions that juxtapose a quartet with a solo instrument, including Piccolo Quintet, Bassoon Quintet and the piano quintet Rhapsodie Macabre. He has set poetry for speaking voice and cello, such as Der Handschuh, and has written song cycles. His compositions reflect the individual capacity and character of players and instruments, from the piccolo to the contrabassoon.
Gestural Variations, Op. 43, is a trio composition by Graham Waterhouse in 1997 originally for oboe, bassoon and piano. Later versions are scored for clarinet, cello and piano (1999) and flute, cello and piano (2009).
Piccolo Quintet is short for the Quintet op. 26 of Graham Waterhouse, composed in 1989 for piccolo and string quartet and published by Zimmermann in 2002 as Quintet for piccolo, 2 violins, viola and violoncello.
Valentina Babor is a German classical pianist. She began performing before audiences and winning youth competitions as a child. At 12, she was accepted by Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the Mozarteum, where she became part of the university's "Initiative Hochbegabten-Förderung", a program for highly gifted students. In 2009, barely an adult, she played Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto in C minor in concert. She continues to perform internationally.
Der Handschuh is a composition by Graham Waterhouse. He wrote the setting of Friedrich Schiller's ballad for cello and speaking voice in 2005. It was published in 2007 in Heinrichshofen's Verlag.
Three Pieces for Solo Cello op. 28, is a composition for cello in three movements by Graham Waterhouse, dedicated to cellist Siegfried Palm in 1992. The composer, a cellist himself, wrote it to "exploit the characteristics" of his instrument. In 1996, a revised version won a composition prize and was performed at the Hochschule für Musik München. The work was published by the Friedrich Hofmeister Musikverlag in 1996 and recorded on a Portrait CD of chamber music in 2001.
Rhapsodie Macabre is a composition for piano and string quartet in one movement by Graham Waterhouse, written in 2011 as a homage to Franz Liszt. It was first performed at a Liszt festival of the Gasteig, Munich, with the composer playing the cello part.
Zeichenstaub is a composition for string trio in four movements by Graham Waterhouse, written in 2010. It was first performed in Arnstadt, Germany, on 18 September 2010, with the composer playing the cello part.
Chieftain's Salute is a concerto in one movement for Great Highland Bagpipe and orchestra by Graham Waterhouse. The work is one of few to use the bagpipe with a classical orchestra. A version for bagpipe and string orchestra, Op. 34a, was composed in 2001. It is based on an earlier work for bagpipe and string quartet. Jacobean Salute was also derived from the early work, with a wind quintet replacing the bagpipe, published in 2003. A version for bagpipe and orchestra was composed and first performed in 2015.
The String Sextet, Op. 1, is a string sextet in four movements by Graham Waterhouse. While the composer began the work as one movement in 1979, he completed it in four movements in 2013. The completed version was first performed at the Gasteig in Munich on 9 February 2014.
Bells of Beyond is a piano trio, composed in 2013 by Graham Waterhouse.
Cybele Records is a German record label based in Düsseldorf, specializing in classical music, namely contemporary music. Founded in 1994, their motto is "Klassik der Zukunft", focused on contemporary composers and advanced recording technologies such as Super Audio CD and surround sound.
Graham Waterhouse, cellist and composer especially of chamber music, has written a number of song cycles. As a cellist, he has used string instruments or a Pierrot ensemble instead of the typical piano to accompany a singer. In 2003 he composed a first cycle of songs based on late poems by Friedrich Hölderlin. In 2016, he set nursery rhymes, excerpts from James Joyce, and texts by Shakespeare. In 2017, he wrote settings of poems by Irish female writers, and in 2022 a cycle of Buddhist texts for mezzo-soprano, cello and piano.
The Viola Sonata by Graham Waterhouse, entitled Sonata ebraica, was written in 2012 and 2013, and premiered in Munich in 2013. It was recorded in 2015 by Hana Gubenko and Timon Altwegg who commissioned and premiered it.
Piano Album is a collection of eight pieces for piano by Graham Waterhouse, published in 2006 by Lienau. The pieces were composed as dedications to family or friends.
Skylla and Charybdis is a 2014 composition for piano quartet by Graham Waterhouse, played in four movements without a break. The title refers to Scylla and Charybdis, two sea monsters from Greek mythology. In performances in German-speaking countries, it has also appeared in English surroundings as Between Scylla and Charybdis.
Variations for Cello Solo is a composition written by Graham Waterhouse in 2019. The variations depict characters of personalities. The cellist and composer performed the world premiere in Vienna in 2020. The composition was published by Schott the same year.
Concentricities is a piano trio by Graham Waterhouse composed in 2019 for clarinet, cello and piano. It was premiered, with the composer as the cellist, at the Gasteig in Munich the same year. It was published by Schott Music.
Alchymic Quartet is a string quartet by Graham Waterhouse composed in 2022, inspired by chemical experiments of his teacher Andrew Szydlo at Highgate School. It was premiered in Gilching and Munich, in celebration of the composer's 60th birthday, with Szydlo attending and performing.
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