Richard Whiteman Old Prose (2020) HD

André Grétry's Richard Coeur de Lion, or Richard the Lionhearted, lay neglected until 2019 when a production by the Opéra Royal de Versailles was mounted. This album is taken from that performance, and it's very well recorded indeed. The opera was quite well known in its time and was even performed in the young U.S. (in Boston, in 1796), and it's a great find, a real crowd-pleaser as much today as at the end of the 18th century. The story is based on a probably imaginary tale of an episode during Richard's return from the Crusades, when he was imprisoned in Linz, Austria.

André Grétry's Richard Coeur de Lion, or Richard the Lionhearted, lay neglected until 2019 when a production by the Opéra Royal de Versailles was mounted. This album is taken from that performance, and it's very well recorded indeed. The opera was quite well known in its time and was even performed in the young U.S. (in Boston, in 1796), and it's a great find, a real crowd-pleaser as much today as at the end of the 18th century. The story is based on a probably imaginary tale of an episode during Richard's return from the Crusades, when he was imprisoned in Linz, Austria. A trouvère singer named Blondel who serves the king realizes his predicament, sneaks into the prison disguised as a blind fiddler, and touches off an action-packed sequence of events with a romance involving the prison governor, a grand party, and a visiting Flemish countess whose troops rescue Richard in the end.

„The grass is greener on the other side“ scheint der künstlerische Leitspruch von dem österreichischen Ausnahmetrompeter aus Berlin - Richard Koch - zu sein. Dabei wohnt er streng genommen gar nicht mehr in Berlin, sondern ist im letzten Winter ins Umland in eine Brandenburgische Landkommune – 40 km von der Hauptstadt entfernt - gezogen. Doch zum Musizieren zieht es ihn nach wie vor in die Stadt, wo er u.a. mit Nils Frahm, Jimi Tenor, Peter Fox oder den Beatsteaks Platten aufnimmt und Konzerte bestreitet. Insofern passt es, dass er das zweite Studio-Album seines Quartetts, das am 06.11.2020 bei XJAZZ Music erscheint, „Stadt“ genannt hat. Sein Debütalbum in der Funktion als Bandleader aus dem Jahre 2018 nannte er „Wald“, komponiert wurde es aber auf der niederländischen Insel Vlieland und Koch reiste mit dem Album im Gepäck schließlich bis nach Athen.