Release Date: 27 October 2014
Label: Challenge Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 608917265729
Genres: Classical
Description
This Hybrid SACD presents a fascinating collaboration between the highly-regarded Calefax Reed Quintet and mezzo-soprano Cora Burggraaf. The album 'The Roaring Twenties' features the group's own arrangements of works by Kurt Weill, George Gershwin, Benjamin Britten, and Aaron Copland, as well as other popular pieces of the period.
The Calefax Reed Quintet is a forward thinking group of musicians that arrange and perform music by composers past and present. Calefax's repertoire spans many centuries, and includes approximately 200 works which have been written especially for them. The Dutch mezzo soprano Cora Burggraaf has been the recipient of many prizes including the 2009/2010 ECHO Rising Star Award. She has appeared at many of the world's greatest opera houses, including La Scala in Milan, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and the Royal Opera House in London (for which she was awarded 'Most Promising Newcomer of the Year' by The Observer).
The album 'The Roaring Twenties' opens with "Breezin' Along with the Breeze" a piece in the Charleston style which was made popular by the singer and actress Josephine Baker. The "Cabaret Songs" are a collaboration between the poet W.H. Auden and the composer Benjamin Britten. The texts are the fruits of Auden's wild time in Berlin in the early thirties. The celebrated Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) by Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill is an ode to down-and-outs, thieves, thugs, con men and whores of Victorian London. George Gershwin's trip to Europe and sojourn in Paris had a significant impact on his career. He met Kurt Weill in Berlin and countless Parisian artists. More importantly, however, was his growing awareness of a uniquely American, jazz influenced style. In 'An American in Paris' Gershwin sketches the awe-struck impressions of an American ambling through the chaotic Paris of the 1920s.
Personnel: Calefax (reed quintet), Cora Burggraaf (mezzo-soprano)
Tracklisting
Narratio Quartet
Piano Duo Scholtes & Janssens
Matteo Cicchitti, Musica Elegentia
Cappella Pratensis, Stratton Bull, Sollazzo Ensemble
La Sfera Armoniosa, Oscar Verhaar, Mike Fentross
Simona Marchesi, Bartolomeo Dandolo Marchesi
Ben Kim, Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra
Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Jan Willem de Vriend
Robert M. Helmschrott
Robert M. Helmschrott
Kevin Juillerat (electronics), Cedric Pecia (prepared piano)
Kaya Han
Helene Breschand, Laurence Bancaud, David Joignaux, Wilhem Latchoumia, Christelle Sery, Fanny Vicens, Wang Ying-Chieh, Ensemble Cairn, L'arsenale
Gunter Schwarze
GrauSchumacher Piano Duo, SWR Experimentalstudio, Michael Acker
Georg Katzer, Matthias Bauer, Margarete Huber, Blaservereinigung Berlin, Bernd Casper, Gregorio Garcia Karman, Evelyn Saylor
