Jürg Leimgruber

Swiss composer Heinz Holliger s Machaut-Transkriptionen is comprised of a spacious cycle of pieces written over a ten year period beginning in 2001. An imaginative re-investigation of the work of the great 14th century French composer-poet Guillaume de Machaut, it is scored for four voices and three violas. Note-for-note transcriptions of Machaut give way to Holliger s increasingly creative refractions of the music. As Holliger notes, his in-depth study of Machaut opened up new vistas for his compositional activity and his admiration for the source material is mirrored in the outstanding performances of the violists and singers. The Machaut-Transkriptionen proves a perfect vehicle for the Hilliard Ensemble s skills as interpreters of both old and new music, and this recording, made in 2010 in Zürich, captures the vocal group at the height of its powers.

The band OM is cult. The four musicians Urs Leimgruber (saxophone), Christy Doran (guitar), Bobby Burri (Bass) and Fredy Studer (Drums) wrote jazz history as pioneers of European Electric-Free Music from 1972 to 1982.

José Bragato und Jürg Eichenberger waren enge Freunde, als das Kammerensemble Eichenbergers Kammersolisten Luzern im Sommer 2004 Südamerika bereiste. Als Dank für die Einladung überreichte José Bragato ihm einige seiner eigenen Kompositionen und exklusiven Bearbeitungen, darunter auch einige für Cello und Klavier. Danza de la Vida ist die erste Zusammenstellung einiger dieser Stücke auf CD. Die Pianistin Eriko Kagawa und Jürg Eichenberger arbeiten seit Jahrzehnten zusammen und planten lange Zeit eine Aufnahme von Bragatos Tango Graciela y Buenos Aires und seinen Arrangements von Piazzolla.

All compositions by Jürg Wickihalder except “Return of Ulysses” (Barry Guy) and “Süssholz” (Michael Griener). Recorded November 7, 8, 2016, at Loft Köln by Christian Heck. Mixed in January 2016 at Tonart Studio by Christian Heck and Jürg Wickihalder. Mastered by Willy Strehler and Jürg Wickihalder. Cover art and graphic design: Jonas Schoder. Photos: Michelle Ettlin. Liner notes: Steff Rohrbach. Produced and published by Intakt Records, Patrik Landolt.

José Bragato and Jürg Eichenberger became close friends when Eichenbergers chamber music ensemble Chamber Soloists Lucerne went on a tour of South America in the summer of 2004. Bragato’s tango Graciela y Buenos Aires is a musical testimony to this love story. As a gesture of gratitude for the invitation, José Bragato then gave him some of his own compositions and exclusive arrangements, including some for cello and piano. ‘Danza de la Vida’ is the first recorded compilation of some of these pieces.

Unintentionally, spontaneously, amusingly, most Monkish, writes American Jazzcritik Art Lange about the music of Jürg Wickihalder and Irène Schweizer. After years of cooperation and many duo-concerts Irène Schweizer and Jürg Wickihalder present the first duo-recording with compositions of Wickihalder, Schweizer and two beautiful pieces of Thelonious Monk. Music with a strong jazz feeling. Firm rhythm and decisive statements. The entire history of jazz plays a role: Lacy, Rollins and Coltrane, Monk, Dollar Brand, Horace Silver and Mal Waldron, even a few particles of Harlem Stride Piano but all of it filtered, not as direct quotations; they have made it their own. What we notice is their immense trust in each other. While they hone their craft on Monk, its always in the knowledge that the crucial spark does not light up in the notes but between them.

Trumpet and organ has us immediately thinking of trumpet tunes and trumpet voluntaries, of majestic, bombastic music by Henry Purcell and George Frideric Handel, of mixtures and reed stops that resound so strongly as to make church walls tremble. The music on this CD does not adhere to those stereotypes: it is very delicate, light, transparent, elegant. If one was to pigeon-hole it, the choice of genre would be difficult.