Florian Noack I Wanna Be Like ou

« After several years of transcriptions devoted exclusively to Russian music, I felt the urge to explore new horizons, to tackle repertory that presented new challenges and called for new ways of approaching the piano. This was also the moment when I met and began studying with Claudio Martínez Mehner, who, among a thousand other things that I owe to him, introduced me to the Baroque repertory and taught me to love it. »

Does Florian Noack’s take on transcription smack of forbidden delights? From Bach to the Sherman Brothers, the pianist denies himself nothing, especially not the pleasure of liberally sprinkling his good humour and insolent virtuosity over these pieces of every hue. Here is a delightful album in which repertory masterpieces and unexpected musical universes come together in perfect harmony under his fingers and gain new light and life, joyful, playful, airy and poetic, thanks to the magic of his inspiration. With exquisite taste, Florian Noack’s transcriptions and paraphrases take us into a world of freedom and refinement, where novel sounds and subtleties of language are delicacies to be savoured . . . guilt-free!

Florian Noack offers a clear, imaginative and vigorous reading of these brilliant yet still little- known pieces. Like Liszt’s Douze Études d’exécution transcendante, which Lyapunov revered, these visionary and colourful works, sometimes steeped in Russian folklore, require the performer to possess technical prowess and poetic sensibility in equal measure. Florian Noack overcomes their countless difficulties with magnificent brio and exemplary musicality.

Greta Matassa made her mark performing in the Pacific Northwest as a jazz vocalist, with a great insight into the Great American Songbook and strong scatting abilities. Both are on display in this big-band session, with arrangements by the promising young pianist Tamir Hendelman and an all-star group.

Few things have informed and inspired as much music as humanity’s search for God. Acclaimed baritone, arranger, and conductor Courtney Carey explores the relation between the worldly and the divine on I WANNA BE READY, a set of 12 spirituals arranged for different instrumentations — and each piece packs a punch.