Awards,
Sheet Music Publications of the Year - Finalists 2024
In anticipation of our upcoming Presto Music Awards, we have released our shortlist of sheet music publications which are all in contention for an award. We have chosen a total of fifteen contenders, and all publications have been published at some point over the past twelve months. Find our finalists below, and be sure to check out the finalists from the jazz, books and classical departments - the winners will be revealed after our awards ceremony on Thursday 5th December.
Sheet Music Publications of the Year - Finalists 2024
Believed to be by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy until 2010, two-hundred years after compotision it was unequivovally attibuted to Fanny Hensel. Bärenreiter's publication presents the first Urtext edition of the Easter Sonata, based on the autograph, and including a colour facsimile of the autograph. As with all Bärenreiter titles, the publication has a well-presented layout with practical page turns.
Available Format: Sheet Music
A timeless collection of peaceful piano solos inspired by the night featuring over fifty lullabies, peaceful classical works and beautiful neoclassical pieces suitable for intermediate pianists. With cover artwork featuring Van Gogh’s painting Starry Night over the Rhone (1888), this beautiful anthology has been carefully curated with music for late-night dreaming, relaxation and contemplation.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Piano Grades Are Go! by music examiner and composer, Victoria Proudler includes characterful solos with the focus on the performance directions. The pieces are carefully graded at the standards of the major exam boards and also include techniques and musical details to supercharge progress through the grades.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Featuring twenty-five works transcribed for the first time to sheet music by James Heather, this collection includes pieces such as Ultraviolet, Empire Sounds, Biomes, Passing Soul, and more, ranging from entry level to advanced difficulty. This printed collection hosts a written introduction alongside insightful performance notes from Heather.
Available Format: Sheet Music
A collection of twenty-four imaginative solo piano pieces of very easy to medium difficulty, which are ideally suited for beginners' lessons and first auditions. The selection presents mysterious stories of ghostly and supernatural phenomena from all over the world. Some of the numerous mythical legends, beings and places date back centuries. With interpretation notes on experimental playing techniques.
Available Format: Sheet Music
The Oxford Book of Organ Music by Women Composers
Oxford University Press | Organ | Editors: Anne Marsden Thomas & Ghislaine Reece-Trapp
A comprehensive survey of historical organ pieces by women composers alongside six newly commissioned works. The music is stylistically varied and encompasses secular and sacred repertoire from a range of periods.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Rachmaninoff Works for Violoncello and Piano
Bärenreiter | Cello and Piano | Editor: Daniela Macchione
Sergei Rachmaninoff’s chamber music for violoncello and piano comprises three works, all of which originate from his early compositional period and whose genesis is closely linked to people in his circle at the time. For this edition, editor Daniela Macchione draws on the first editions published in collaboration with Rachmaninoff as well as the relevant autographs, which are accessible in the National Museum of Music in Moscow and the Library of Congress in Washington DC.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Five specially created arrangements from the composer himself, arranged for violin and piano, of his original compositions from his critically acclaimed album My World. Each composition is dedicated to an important figure in Nigel's life. Improvisation from the player is encouraged, but not obligatory.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Faure Centenary Songbook (Series)
Edition Peters | Voice and Piano | Editors: Roy Howat & Emily Kilpatrick
To mark the centenary of the composer’s death, Edition Peters published Gabriel Fauré Centenary Songbook: a celebratory edition containing fifteen of his most beautiful and popular songs. Short introductory texts to the pieces and translations of the poetic texts help to make this beautiful Romantic-Impressionist song repertoire accessible to all.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Women composers have always made significant contributions to the choral repertoire. Numerous hidden gems for mixed choir are ready and waiting to be performed in concerts and church services. This choral collection spotlights female composers from Europe, North and South America and Israel, ranging from the Renaissance period to young composers of the present day.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Suitable for groups of all ages and experience levels, SingCircle provides choral leaders with everything they need to facilitate inclusive and satisfying group singing. This unique collection of rounds spans centuries of accessible material from the medieval period to the present day, drawing from a range of musical traditions and offering the chance to explore singing in different languages.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Completed this year, Breitkopf's OperAria is a repertoire anthology of opera arias according to vocal criteria (range, tessitura, specifics, type of aria) with due regard to practical aspects of musical and theatrical nature (style, era, role type, national provenance).
Available Format: Sheet Music
Debussy’s autograph score served for the engraving of the first edition. Additional entries in a different hand (accidentals, performance instructions, notes for the layout) reflect this work step. At the same time, Debussy himself made corrections, once by pasting over a piece of paper, which is reproduced in the facsimile according to the original. The old and new versions can both be viewed via the fold-out piece of paper.
Available Format: Sheet Music
This edition offers interpreters a reliable foundation for what is definitely completed, and what must be considered as unfinished, for the first time. Finally an edition that not only reflects the orchestral practice of Mahler’s time, but also utilizes it for today’s needs. Helpful notes in the score and practical solutions in the parts are owed to the cooperation with experienced conductors and orchestral musicians.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Lyrebird's edition of César Franck: Intégrale de l’œuvre d’orgue presents Frank's journey from unsettled pianist to master craftsman at the organ and harmonium in a new light. The objective of this chronologically ordered edition spanning the three different periods of his life combines as many elements as possible from the study of available autograph manuscripts, first editions and letters in the hope of contributing to a more holistic evaluation, in practical terms, of his output for organ and harmonium.
Available Format: Sheet Music
Ellena Taylor - Sheet Music and Books Manager
