Berner Flex

Michael Moore: This recording is primarily a dialogue between Paul and myself - well known material played simply. I have been wanting to do something like this since I heard the great New Orleans clarinetist Louis Cottrell’s Riverside recording ‘Bourbon Street’ - pure joy!

This is the first solo album of the Mezzo Soprano Anke Vondung, who is travelling the world and the most prominent Opera Houses and Concert Halls. Two years ago, inspired by their shared love of Viennese music and visual arts at the turn of the 20th century, Anke and Christoph put together a vocal recital programme featuring lieder by Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Alexander Zemlinsky and Gustav Mahler.

This was the dream of the current director of the Claves label: to record his favourite work ever, in its original version and with a pioneer of Baroque interpretation, Ton Koopman.One of Joseph Haydn's most mature works, The Seven Last Words were commissioned by the Holy Cave Oratory in Cadiz, for its inauguration in 1786, on Good Friday.Haydn told of the particular circumstances of the creation: in a church shrouded in black, the priest proclaimed each word and then prostrated himself during each sonata.The work is surrounded by a meditative introduction and an apocalyptic earthquake. In the centre, seven slow movements in sonata form follow one another, in which we find the young Haydn's Sturm und Drang vein and his maturity brought to light by his imminent London triumphs from 1791 onwards.

The great saxophonist Ben Webster wanted to know the words for every ballad he played. If he could not remember the words he would not play the song. Paul Berner Band have taken Ben’s rule to heart. These Lennon & McCartney songs are being sung without words but the outstanding musicianship of these musicians ensures that every word is heard. Paul Berner has managed the impossible. He has taken these Lennon & McCartney compositions, rearranged them for his quartet, opened them up for improvisation and personal interpretationbut managed to stay true to the essence of the songs.