d Genesis

To celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the legendary Quatuor Habanera (Paris), the Swiss-Slovenian saxophonist Maja Lisac Barroso presented the formation with an immense but fascinating challenge. To rehearse a work that is actually seen as the ‘epitome of a chamber music work for strings’: Schubert’s famous String Quintet, D.956. The artist spent two years listening to Schubert’s masterpiece every day, researching the work and its genesis, before finally arranging it for five saxophones. The result? Something seemingly impossible…

Long before the advent of surtitles in the opera house, success across Europe of new dramatic works depended on their plots being understood by local audiences. Such was the case for the German singspiel that is Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and when it was introduced to in Paris in 1801 it was adapted and re-titled Les Mystères d’Isis: this is the opera which Le Concert Spirituel and the Flemish Radio Choir have recorded for this new release on Glossa (Diego Fasolis conducting the ensembles in place of the then indisposed Hervé Niquet).

The story of the discovery and resurrection of Britten’s Double Concerto for Violin and Viola is one of those rare musicological moments that can capture the interest of even the casual music lover. Britten had started composing it as a very young man but never quite finished it, even though the work had progressed quite far. So, it was only after his death that the premiere took place, in 1997. Unlike that work, the Violin Concerto, Op. 15 found itself immediately thrust onto the world’s musical stage, its genesis having been rather straightforward, if hardly smooth. Britten had left Great Britain before the outbreak of World War II in Europe and so he composed it in Canada and the US.

Norwegian act D'ACCORD was formed in early 2008. Just one year later they were ready with their self-titled debut album, a production that eventually led to the band signing with Karisma Records. Their first album as a signed band was "Helike" from 2011, and in the early spring of 2014 D'Accord returned with their third CD, "D'Accord III", their second album to be released through Karisma Records. If you subscribe to the notion that just about all music worth appreciating was made in the late 60's and early 1970's, D'Accord will be a band that merits a check at this point. They have a bonafide vintage sound, and pulls in details from what, I suspect, is a wide variety of bands with fairly different stylistic expressions to make their own vintage rock stew.

Helike is the second album by Norway’s D’AccorD, formed, as they say themselves “…to capture the true essence of the early 70’s Progressive rock”. The band takes inspiration from bands like Genesis, King Crimson, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull. The construction of the album with two songs of around twenty minutes each fits well into the 70s scheme of things, as does the music itself. With plenty of easily identifiable classic prog references this will appeal to fans of Wobbler and their ilk. However the band show enough of their own skill to indicate that they should have the confidence to create their own niche in the future.