Chamber Music for Violoncellos 17: Cello Ensemble

The latest volume in this popular series expands the repertoire of intermediate violoncello pupils with some unusual transcriptions. This time the editor, Árpád Pejtsik, has arranged Ave Maria settings (one song and three choral works) for four cellos. The first is a classical music hit, Schubert’s Ave Maria. Next is the transcription of a little-known piece from Liszt’s vast output, an item from his 1879 choral work Rosario, followed by an arrangement of the first of Verdi’s Quattro pezzi sacri, famous for being based on an ''enigmatic scale'' (scala enigmatica). The volume concludes with another evergreen, the Ave Maria from Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil. Rather than testing the players’ virtuosity, these slow-moving, contemplative pieces serve more to improve intonation skills as well as a sense of form and proportion. The editor has added suggested fingerings and bowings in order to help with the music's appropriate interpretation.