Presents

Alexis Hollaender

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Six Character Pieces for Clarinet, Viola & Piano, Op.53

Alexis Hollaender (1840-1924) was born near the Silesian town of Ratibor then in northeast Germany and now in Poland. He came from a musical family and studied piano and composition in Breslau and Berlin  He pursued a career as a piano teacher at various Berlin music schools  and also worked as choral director. Most of his compositions were either for piano or choirs.

His Six Character Pieces date from 1898 and were brought out for three arrangements Clarinet, Viola and Piano, Violin, Viola and Piano and Violin, Cello and Piano. Of the three, only the first, the one for Clarinet, Viola and Piano received any real attention. The character piece was a format more or less created by Robert Schumann, and his Märchenerzählungen (fairytales) for Clarinet, Viola and Piano were perhaps the most famous of their type, which may explain why the version of Hollaender's Six Character Pieces for the same combination became the only one to gain any traction. Each piece expresses a different mood and interestingly, although they were written iu canonic style, one is hardly aware of this. The Six Character Pieces were quite possibly meant as a tribute to Robert Schumann whom Hollaender very much admired. It was his publisher which insisted on the other two arrangments, no doubt to appeal to a wider audience of chamber music players and increase profits.  They were originally published in in two parts or books. The only reason we can think of is so that the publisher could make more money because the pieces are not particularly long. All six could easily have printed in one volume and can certainly be performed together, as they were no doubt intended since as a whole they are no longer than a medium length trio. However, we have put an end to this and have included all six under one set of covers for the same price as a trio

Parts: $29.95