Classical Editor: Rob Barnett
 

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Woodwind Revolution    Domus Quintett  DIGITAL AUTOMATIC MUSIC - RESONANCE RES-CD 005 [50.32]

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PETER SCHÖNFELD The Dolphin

CHICK COREA Spain

ISAK ROUX Four African Scenes

R. BRECKER Some Skunk Funk

WERNER KÖHLER From The Jungle Book

HANS-GÜNTER BUNZ Suite for Woodwinds

TERENCE GREAVES Mozart's Turkey Rock Mambo

DEBUSSY The Little Negro

This sequel to their first MP3 Resonances disc is every bit as good as the first though lighter and at the same time more obscure.

The playing remains alert and engaging with the recording is close to realism as you could desire.

The Quintett have selected some out of the way material. I know SCHÖNFELD from his piano concerto on an Athene CD (with the Dvorák piano concerto). This Dolphin piece has its moments of avant-garderie, the song of the Dolphin - whale-like. COREA'S Spain cross-breeds typically Hispanic catches and melodies with a jazzy squeeze. ROUX's little African suite has rhythmic interest and punctuation aplenty in the outer movements but the second movement (Wind Song) is dryly romantic as is the third sounding as if it is recalling Fanfare for the Common Man (but in the mode of a lament or spiritual).

RANDY BRECKER's Skunk Funk is commercial and very urban but with pith and lilt. KÖHLER's Jungle Book pictures have humour and of course are a vehicle for the Disney film songs all pitched at us with a wink and a smile. The BUNZ is similar but using the Tango (rather a good one too), Blues, Waltz and Swing as vehicles. GREAVES Turkey Rock Mambo swoons in an alcoholic haze. DEBUSSY's The Little Negro is the only piece by a composer whose name you might recognise. It is a brief ragtime jeu d'esprit.

I would specially commend the Roux and Corea pieces if you would like to sample the tracks.

This is a fun concert of the type you might hear (if you were lucky) on warm summer evening in München.

Playing time is still short. This is something the company will have to address if this music is to have the chance it deserves.

Reviewer

Rob Barnett

The CD is an enhanced CD, meaning that it contains a multimedia presentation that can be accessed on both a PC and a Mac.

The presentation includes full descriptive notes, which are also available in PDF format at http://www.resonances.com/CDs.

Of course, the CDs work in a normal CD player too.

The price of the new CD is $11.99 at mp3.com.

Background material about the artists is available at resonances.com and mp3.com.

Full notes by Werner Köhler (a member of Domus - the bassoonist) in an English translation by David Sedlock are also available at the same site.

David Sedlock has prepared "What Every Classical Music Lover Needs to

Know about MP3".

Anyone who is interested in buying the CD or learning more about MP3 should be satisfied by a link to the Domus site at mp3.com: http://www.mp3.com/DomusQuintett


Reviewer

Rob Barnett


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