Rolf

This is a reissue (first time on CD) of the seminal album by legendary German clarinetist/composer Rolf Kuhn (born 1929), recorded with a quintet, which also included his younger brother pianist/composer Joachim Kuhn (born 1944), bassist Klaus Koch and two Polish Jazz legends: saxophonist Michał Urbaniak and drummer Czesław Bartkowski. The album presents six pieces: three original compositions by Rolf Kuhn, two original compositions by Joachim Kuhn and one arrangement of a folk tune. Over the years this album achieved a legendary status and became a highly sought after collector's item, because of its political implications, as well as being one of the earliest East European Jazz recordings and an important cornerstone of European Jazz in general.

This is a recording which truly challenges the accepted norms of musical recording and it does so triumphantly. The sound is full and rich, being recorded in a great church. Lislevand's control of sonority is at times stunning, his tone always sweet and strong. The pieces are tastefully arranged into suites, balanced and whole. And the disc even includes snippets of bird and animal sounds which invaded the recording sessions from the cool night air and nearby lake. Added to this, the liner notes are exemplary, full of insight into the composers' of the disc as well as the opinions and ideas on historical performance. Highlights of this recording are the Canaries by Gaultier and Tombeau du Mezangeau, by the same.

Alfabeto is a system of notation used in music for the five­course (‘Baroque’) guitar. Letters of the alphabet indicated chords and the precise left­hand fingering required; the direction in which they were to be strummed was also shown. The relationship of the alfabeto letter to the musical identity of the chord was arbitrary. There was some freedom of interpretation‚ dependent on the degree of knowledge of the player. The alfabeto system also underwent ‘mixed marriage’ with the notation of the more sophisticated ‘lute­like’ punteado style in which melodic passages were plucked with the individual fingers of the right hand – and which existed separately in its own right. The choice of instrumentation and manner of performance here stem‚ the booklet tells us‚ from ‘years of work on 17th­century repertoire‚ the result of a synthesis of musicological research and instinctive musicianship’. Lislevand is an exceptionally gifted performer and‚ as his recent recording of Bach suites shows (Naïve‚ 7/01)‚ he does not hesitate to add his own excellent embellishments.

Nuria Rial and Lothar Odinius are the stars of the show. Rial has a fine voice, and excellent diction, and her text expression is mostly very good. The arias 'Pious orgies' and 'O liberty, thou choicest treasure' are two examples. She also performs the recitatives in a truly declamatory style. A particularly telling example of her treatment of the text is the delightful aria 'So shall the lute and harp awake' (act 3). Lothar Odinius shows the same qualities, and I was especially impressed with his differentiated performance of the coloratura passages in his arias. Like Nuria Rial he performs the recitatives very well. The aria 'Call forth thy pow'rs' (act 1) and the aria with chorus 'Sound an alarm' (act 2) are particularly well done.

It is well known that Bach was a keen recycler – always borrowing old musical ideas and refashioning them for different expressive purposes. The Oster Oratorium is no exception in that its origins can be traced back to a secular cantata written in 1725 to celebrate the birthday of Duke Christian of Saxony-Weissenfels. Little over a month later the cantata was performed again, this time with an amended text and new recitatives to suit the celebration of Easter Sunday, but it was not until 1735 that the composer, having made further alterations to the work’s structure and scoring, chose to give it the revised title ‘oratorio’.

The conductor and composer Robert HP Platz was born in Baden-Baden in 1951. His musical mentor and teacher was Karlheinz Stockhausen. Robert Platz was the founder of the Ensemble Koln and was its leader for over 20 years. Rolf Hind had appeared at all the major contemporary music festivals, including Huddersfield and Brighton, and has earned himself the reputation of one of the foremost interpreters of new music.

The London Sinfonietta combine two works from Thomas Adès, one of the most distinctive and popular voices in modern composition. Both works feature accompanying films (by Tal Rosner and Sophie Clements) that are included in this CD/DVD set. 'In Seven Days' is a musical interpretation for piano and orchestra of the biblical ‘creation’ by Thomas Adès, composed in collaboration with a film-piece by the artist and filmmaker Tal Rosner. B