Ridgedale Farm Builds

The music of the Renaissance appears to reflect little of the dangers, horrors and violent conflicts of its time. Music written during the Hundred Years War or the French invasion of Italy gives hardly any impression to todays ears of the precariousness of existence of which its composers, singers and listeners must have continually been aware. Nor do the two masses by Jacob Obrecht (1457/8 1505) on this recording betray anything of the restless spirit of the age, despite them both being based on models referring to suffering and misery. Founded by Markus Muntean and Bernhard Trebuch- out of passion for vocal polyphony and a kind of despair about the break in the interpretation of this music which took place in the 1980s- beauty farm gathers young singers, leaving traditions behind, willing to experiment and exploring new musical territory.

Reverberations from the Future and the Past: Just recently two brilliant minds of modern jazz celebrated a truly exceptional anniversary. David Liebman, the 1946 born saxophonist from New York and Richie Beirach, one year his junior and a leading exponent of the modern jazz-piano who, just as Liebman, came from New York and spent much of his life in Cologne, have literally met 50 years ago for the first time. Thus, the pair knows each other since 1969 and highly appreciates the work accomplished together. As it should be with two masters of their standing, they celebrated the special occasion with a small party and a major CD; on a double CD (released on JAZZLINE just as this recording) the two take on European classics of concert music, ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach to Bela Bartok, and tell stories full of reverences – how do these musical traditions of past centuries interact with the contemporary language of jazz and which inputs can the methods of jazz offer to the compositional stringency of the classical repertoire? It is indeed a wide subject Beirach and Liebman are exploring.

In Elle B. White's delightful second Finn Family Farm mystery, farmer Charlotte Finn and her sleuthing baby pig are neck-deep in strawberries and crime. …