Anders Hagberg Quartet - Stories of Now - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Conductor Ferdinand Leitner (1912-96), learning his trade from masters like Walter, Busch, Richter and Karl Muck (as rehearsal pianist at Bayreuth), gained the experience that lead to his being dubbed the Inchsingers' conductorInch by all who worked with him during a long and lustrous career marked by his tenure as Zurich Opera music director (1969-84) and some 300 commercial recordings. The 1970's-80's Bayreuth stalwart, bass-baritone Franz Mazura as Tamerlano and famed American lyric soprano Helen Donath as Asteria headline this 1966 Leitner-led performance of Handel's Tamerlano.

All the music on this album was recorded in different spaces with different acoustic conditions, using an improvisation-based approach that left much or all to the impulses of the place and moment. Half of the pieces on the album consist of solos for flutes of different sizes, with minimal accompaniment. The others were played in duo with double bassist Johannes Lundberg and were recorded in two spaces with big, warm acoustics the main exhibition hall at the Nordic Watercolour Museum and Ohlin Hall at the Academy of Music and Drama in Gothenburg.

The music for the album NORTH was recorded over two days in late February 2020. Using a handful of compositions as a starting point, we captured a flow of inspired, intuitive collaborative music. The word improvisationInch literally means Inchunforeseen,Inch and during the session we were able to be present, to be open to the unforeseen, and to come together in music. The compositions on NORTH are dedicated to people, places and phenomena that are meaningful to me in different ways.Inch (Anders Hagberg)