Special Jakob Magnusson

Singer Fay Claassen and trumpeter/composer Jakob Helling first met in summer 2022 for concerts and recordings with the "Jakob Helling Concert Big Band". Now this delightful encounter continues with slightly fewer musicians on stage: the two have a fantastic band in tow, featuring Matthew Halpin (sax), Mátyás Bartha (piano), Ivar Roban Križić (bass) and Mario Gonzi (drums), some of the most exciting musicians in the German-speaking world. The programme ranges from some pieces from the brand new album "Nerds & Sweeties" by the "Jakob Helling Concert Big Band" to arrangements from the Great American Songbook, which Helling has breathed new life into, to the musicians' own compositions. You can look forward to an entertaining concert evening full of joyful playing and virtuosity paired with arrangements that stimulate both the brain and the heart.

The music from the Baltic region in the latter half of the 17th century is characterized by fearless innovation and bubbling creativity. Here, a glimpse into the sacred solo-cantata and chamber music of this period is presented by bass-baritone Jakob Bloch Jespersen and Concerto Copenhagen under the direction of Lars Ulrik Mortensen.

With Uma Elmo, his fifth album as a leader for ECM, Danish guitarist Jakob Bro presents a new trio featuring Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen and Spanish drummer Jorge Rossy. Astonishingly, given the trio’s musical synergy, the first time these three musicians ever performed together was for the album’s sessions at the Swiss Radio studio in Lugano, with ECM founder Manfred Eicher producing. Uma Elmo reaffirms the observation about Bro’s work by London Jazz News that “there is no hurry to this music, but there is great depth.” Among the album’s highlights is opener “Reconstructing a Dream,” a darkly lyrical reverie.

In what Et’cetera has described as Volume I, Pavlo Beznosiuk couples three of Westhoff’s suites for solo violin from 1696 with six items from Walther’s scherzos from 1676. His program opens with Walther’s Sonata VIII, offering a startling initial barrage of signature chords and double-stops, giving way to flurries of rapid notes and studded with brilliant staccatos, beside which the demands of Corelli’s solos about a generation later pale, and the Sonata closes with fireworks that make a greater cumulative effect than the works of Locatelli, often identified as the precursor of Paganini’s technical demands.