48 Hour Start Up

Torme's performances are superb, but this two-disc compilation has no track information whatsoever – no composer or musician credits, no session dates, nothin…

Austrian clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer has joined forces with Chinese pianist Yuja Wang to record an album of works by composers of the Romantic era. Blue Hour features some of the jewels of the repertoire, including Brahms’s Intermezzo in A major, Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words – arranged for clarinet and piano by Ottensamer – and Weber’s virtuosic Grand Duo concertant. The album reveals Ottensamer to be not just a sensitive and responsive chamber partner, but also a brilliant soloist, as he gives a dazzling performance of Weber’s First Clarinet Concerto, recorded with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Mariss Jansons.

This is how it came about: Prior to the effort in question, Hammill and Roger Eno chose a key in which to begin, and a specific time at which their performances would start. Then, sitting in their respective studios, miles apart, and with no communication whatsoever, they began to improvise, using various instruments. After one hour exactly, both ceased performing…