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