Fred Thomas, Aisha Orazbayeva & Lucy Railton
Release Date: 22 October 2021
Label: ECM New Series
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 028948561414
Genres: Classical Chamber Music
Description
Fred Thomas is an ECM artist who studied at the Royal Academy of Music and is one of London's most sought after multi-instrumentalists and composer/arranger/producers.
Here is Johann Sebastian Bach in transfigured light: with organ chorale preludes, vocal cantata movements and orchestral sinfonias - 24 pieces in all - transcribed for trio and solo piano by Fred Thomas, and threaded into a compelling new sequence by Manfred Eicher.
On Three Or One, Bach's idiom is respectfully explored by three innovative players, a process Thomas describes as "quietly joyful," and the trio pieces, primarily drawn from Bach's Orgelbuchlein, acquire a fresh character in the hands of Kazakh violinist Aisha Orazbayeva and British cellist Lucy Railton, musicians more often associated with contemporary composition's cutting edge.
Fred Thomas, who makes his ECM New Series debut here, has always worked across contexts and genres, and considers the trio's wide-ranging experience:
"an incitement to creativity. Bach often re-used his own material and it is no surprise it came out differently each time. With his imaginative, technical and improvisatory powers, do we really believe that Bach would play the same thing the same way twice?"
It's a good question, and the key to the approach taken on Three Or One.
Press:
"[Bach] mostly realised through the medium of the piano trio - albeit with self-effacing strings that match Thomas's penchant for hushed purity...The results can be mesmerising. The delicacy of 'Ach bleib bei uns' BWV 694 or the Sinfonia to Cantata 196 is disarming. And the aria from Cantata 105 utterly beguiles, its insistent, throbbing accompaniment supporting a sublimely translucent melodic line...an illuminating if idiosyncratic Bachian." - **** BBC Music Magazine
"[Thomas] transforms the aria from the Cantata Weichet nur, betrübte Schatten into a gorgeous cantabile supported by a steady left-hand accompaniment, with a control of legato that requires little help from the sustain pedal. Conversely, Thomas's detached articulation and firmly delineated dotted rhythms in the Sinfonia from Cantata No 196, Der Herr denket an uns, sound pearly, rounded and never percussive for a second. Also note the ensemble's subtle dynamic build in Jesu, meine Freude, providing a full-bodied, dignified conclusion." - Gramophone
"London pianist Fred Thomas has long been a fixture of some excellent jazz, world and modern composition projects, but his ECM debut 'Three or One' sees him elegantly arrange and reinvent a series of Bach sinfonias, vocal cantata and organ preludes for piano, violin and cello." - The Guardian
"A deeply felt and beautifully recorded album of re-imagined short Bach pieces which have been "threaded into a compelling sequence" by Manfred Eicher. Pianist and arranger Fred Thomas, making his debut as leader on ECM, is an astonishingly fine musician, and his string colleagues - Kazakh violinist Aisha Orazbayeva and English cellist Lucy Railton - understand and support his many-faceted vision brilliantly, fitting empathetically into a multitude of varied roles." - The Arts Desk
"This is a beautiful album that is flawless in its conception and execution and plunges the listener into Bach's world with a fresh perspective and set of ears. Essential listening." - JazzViews
Tracklisting
Gidon Kremer, Kremerata Baltica & Vida Mikneviciute
Arvo Part
Thomas Larcher
John Holloway Ensemble
Heinz Holliger & Anton Kernjak
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Tallinn Chamber Orchestra & Tonu Kaljuste
Karlheinz Stockhausen Michaels Reise
Andras Schiff
Christoph Croise; Andrey Baranov; Alexander Panfilov
Trio Parnassus
Kilian Herold, Barbara Buntrock, Florian Donderer, Tanja Tetzlaff
Narratio Quartet
Beau Soir Trio
Martin Rummel, Stefan Stroissnig
Hanspeter Oggier; Marina Vasilyeva
Antje Weithaas, Denes Varjon
