Weber

Alba is the premiere recording of trumpeter Markus Stockhausen’s duo with pianist Florian Weber, a formation in existence for some six years now. Though very different in their connections to the language of jazz, both musicians share a deep interest in the process of creative expression: of looking inwards and outwards with intensity at things, for echoes, resonances, insights.

Sir Colin Davis conducts the London Symphony Orchestra and chorus and a stellar cast of soloists in a concert performance of Weber's eerily fantastical opera, Der Freischutz. Der Freischutz is heralded as one of the cornerstones of Romantic opera, drawing on traditional German folk tunes and elements of Romanticism for the first time in the history of opera. The evocative and colorful orchestration is particularly impressive in the ''Wolf's Glen'' scene - long considered the most gruesomely expressive rendering of evil ever found in a musical score. Many listeners may be familiar with this opera without even knowing it; several of the melodies have been adapted as hymn tunes and the overture is regularly performed as a stand-alone work in the concert hall.

Regarded as one of Europe’s leading horn players, Martin Owen appears as a soloist and chamber musician around the world. Currently principal horn at the BBC Symphony Orchestra, he has previously served as principal horn of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and as solo horn of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Weber’s Concertino was written for the old, valveless ‘natural horn’; its limited range of notes (tied to the harmonic series) was extended mechanically with additional tubing (‘crooks’) and, more artfully, by virtuoso players bending notes, and varied hand stopping. The technical demands of the Concertino are testament to the extraordinary facility of the hornists of the period.

“Symphonic jazz – picturesque, romantic, at times rhythmically involved, at others minimalistic and harmonically abstruse,” is how Allmusic describes Eberhard Weber’s ECM debut from 1974, calling it an “ambitious”, “and influential work”.

“Wartburg” fizzes and shimmers with all the acuity of Michael Wollny's senses and his protean capacity to be alive to the possibilities and the magic of the moment. This is improvising at the limit, life seen through a dream. The album also documents a first-ever encounter of his trio with Emile Parisien, arguably the most influential and original voice on soprano sax today. A unique moment in contemporary jazz.

Matthias Kirschnereit and the hr-Sinfonieorchester under Michael Sanderling have compiled a compelling, captivating programme of music from the last days of the Classical era, on the cusp of the Romantic. This “half-way house” – in the best possible sense – accommodates the compositions of Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Carl Maria von Weber and Felix Mendelssohn.

The aesthetic sound of FIVE FAUNS is the focus and is fed by the counterpoint of the Renaissance and Baroque. This music is sensual and transparent. Singer Almut Kühne is featured in this quintet by drummer and composer Tilo Weber. It is all about the most famous of all song themes, love, with unusual lyrics, from the Bible's Song of Songs or from Bram Stoker's novel Dracula alike.

Austrian clarinettist Andreas Ottensamer has joined forces with Chinese pianist Yuja Wang to record an album of works by composers of the Romantic era. Blue Hour, set for release on March 8 by Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company, features some of the jewels of the repertoire including Brahms’s Intermezzo in A major, Mendelssohn’s Songs without Words – arranged for clarinet and piano by Ottensamer – and Weber’s virtuosic Grand Duo concertant. The album reveals Ottensamer to be not just a sensitive and responsive chamber partner, but also a brilliant soloist, as he gives a dazzling performance of Weber’s First Clarinet Concerto, recorded with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Mariss Jansons.

With Oslo, Michael Wollny and his trusty rhythm section (bassist Christian Weber and drummer Eric Schaefer) confirm that their project is as solid as ever. Recorded at Rainbow Studio in the Norwegian capital in September 2017, the album confirms that Wollny is one of the most skilful German jazz pianists of his generation. An improviser, here he deploys his staple piano style, with plenty of spaces and silences. His playing carries a sincere romanticism which never feels overdone, and a muted tonality.

The trio with Ellery Eskelin, Christian Weber and Michael Griener presents an extraordinary album: on Sensations Of Tone the New York saxophonist, the Berlin drummer and the Swiss bassist play Free Music as well as Traditional Jazz. "We dug more deeply into our improvisations and looked directly at this shared affinity for early jazz", Ellery Eskelin writes in the liner notes. The Eskelin-Weber-Griener trio does not fuse the individual ways of playing, it alternates and contrasts. Each of the beautiful standards «Shreveport Stomp», «China Boy», «Moten Swing» and «Ain’t Misbehavin’» is followed by free improvisations.