MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

REVIEW


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

alternatively
CD: MDT

Butterfly
Track-listing at end of review
Bass Instinct (Gina Schwartz, Peter Herbert, Tim Dunin, Herbert Mayr, Gerhard Muthspiel, Ernst Weissensteiner)
rec. 11-13 December 2009, Symphonia Studio, Konzerthaus, Wien.
ZAPP MUSIC ZM0019 [63.40]

Experience Classicsonline

Bass Instinct is a group of six Austrian double-bass players, with all but one based in Vienna. The different individuals come from a variety of backgrounds; two play with the Vienna Philharmonic, another with the Vienna Volksoper, another teaches at the University for Music and Applied Arts, Graz and two are composers.

The works on this disc are all contemporary pieces written especially for the group, generally by double-bass players; Barbara Bruckmuller seems to be the non-bass playing exception. The works are all recorded acoustically and not amplified.

The disc opens with El Violagambista by group member Gina Schwartz, who studied in Vienna, Berklee College Boston and in New York. It is a homage to the fact that the bass instrument owes its shape to the viola da gamba family. In fact the work is an appealing mixture of baroque and jazz. Joelle Leandre’s Butterfly II mixes highly rhythmic sections with cries and whispers and allows the players room for improvisation. Leandre is a French bassist and composer active in new music and free improvisation.

American jazz bassist Mark Dresser wrote Lacytude in memory of Steve Lacy the jazz musician who died in 2004 after a long career. Here the piece is played in an arrangement by Gerhard Muthspiel. The piece combines different layers of circular, repetitive movement in a hypnotically repetitive way. Barbara Bruckmuller’s Bridesque has a jazz/funk feel with an attractive plucked accompaniment. Bruckmuller is an Austrian jazz composer and arranger who runs her own big band.

In the CD liner notes Elf by Thomas Stempkowski is described as a row of loops. In it a variety of rhythmic effects such as col legno accompany a melody with distinctly Latin American feel. In fact in many of these pieces, varied though they are, it was the jazzy Latino feel that kept coming back.

Maples and Spruce consists of two movements from a longer work by Mark Helias, the American bassist/composer. Here I would have liked more information than the short sentence given in the notes; you feel that the work is telling a story. The two movements are dramatic and melodic again with some hints of South America.

The booklet says that Georg Breinschmid’s 5/4 is based on a minimalistic pattern, but the liner-notes describe the next piece rather differently to the way I perceive it. What came over to me was an attractive Hispanic melody with a wonderfully richly textured accompaniment.

Young Czech bassist Jiri Slavk’s Ceremony for a Narcissus is a slow, dark piece full of haunting dissonance. Whereas 19 Centuries, by Icelandic composer Skuli Sverrison, starts from Shaker Loops and then develops melodically as well. It is played in an arrangement by Peter Herbert.

Another Gina Schwartz piece, Next to Irnfritz presents a rather attractively jaunty, even sly, melody. In contrast Peter Herbert’s YAK 52 is composed from different types of rhythmic slapping; the piece was originally written for a film by Gerhard Klocker. The last Gina Schwartz piece, Sound of Air, deploys unashamedly romantic melancholy, offset by rhythmic moments.

For the finale, Peter Herbert’s arrangement of Georg Breinschmid’s Zorpner’s Holiday is a jauntily happy piece, complete with whistling. Breinschmid is an Austrian bassist and composer; classically trained and playing in various Viennese orchestras, he migrated to jazz in 1999.

This is an imaginative disc, beautifully played. The combination of six double-basses results in a very distinctive sound; you could hardly mistake the double-bass’s upper register for any other instrument. These pieces develop the sound world of the bass, rather than trying to make it something which it isn’t. The results are by turns serious, humorous and attractively melodic. Do try it.

Robert Hugill

Track-listing

Gina SCHWARTZ (b. 1968)
El Violagambista [2.31]
Joelle LEANDRE (b.1951)
Butterfly II [3.39]
Mark DRESSER (b.1952)
Lacytude [6.05]
Barbara BRUCKMULLER (b.1975)
Bridesque [3.14]
Thomas STEMPKOWSKI
Elf [4.23]
Mark HELIAS (b.1950)
Maples & Spruce I [3.26]
Maples & Spruce II [6.24]
Georg BREINSCHMID (b.1973)
5/4 [6.04]
Jiri SLAVIK (b.1986)
Ceremony for a Narcissus [5.02]
Skuli SVERRISSON (b.1966)
19 centuries [4.38]
Gina SCHWARTZ
Next to Irnfritz [4.47]
Peter HERBERT (b.1960)
YAK 52 [3.50]
Gina SCHWARTZ
Sound of air [6.43]
Georg BREINSCHMID
Zorpner’s Holiday [2.25]


 

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools






Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.


 

> Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.