Christian Krischkowsky - Discovery of lightness - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Our first collaborative venture with the Constanze Quartet from Salzburg also marks the production of the first complete recording of the string quartets of Felix Draeseke - a German composer, a representative of the new German school, and a contemporary of Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, and Johannes Brahms. Draeseke's string quartets are unique in style. In them we often encounter influence from Wagner, even if not in the form of an imitation of Wagnerian compositional style but as a creative continuation of the legacy of Classical composers such as they were transmitted to Draeseke through Wagner. The idea of a Inchmelodic threadInch holding the music together while serving as a unifying element is in evidence everywhere in these works. Both quartets impressively demonstrate the words of the Draeseke expert Christoph Schlüren InchDraeseke is primarily lyrical in nature but at the same time has his appealing harshness and explores the dark, introverted expressive worlds with a unique imagination. The far-reaching melos is tailored for contrapuntal suitability, and for German circumstances the rhythm is particularly zestful and highly varied. Stylistically, relations quite obviously exist not only between Draeseke and Beethoven but also between Draeseke and Mendelssohn inasmuch as Draeseke's highly colorful harmonic language, in part pervaded by surprising modulations, is an individual continuation and development of the New German InchprogressiveInch stance proceeding from Wagner and Liszt. Draeseke's outstanding stature as a string quartet composer rests above all on his entirely original architectonic mastery in a genre in which Beethoven and Schubert created unsurpassable music, but where Draeseke, together with Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and the late Dvorák, proceeding from the experiences of Schumann and Mendelssohn, produced decidedly new music.Inch

2018 . Christian Artmann, a New York-based flute player and composer, is passionate about bridging musical boundaries and showcasing the flute in contemporary music. His musical associations include pianists/composers Laszlo Gardony, Yago Vazquez, Gregg Kallor, Rubens Salles and Philippine Duchateau, bassists Johannes Weidenmueller and Chris van Voorst van Beest, drummer Jeff Hirshfield, percussionists Laura Inserra and Luiz Claudio, mezzo soprano Elena McEntire, the Princeton Pro Musica and the Aspen Festival Orchestra. He has performed at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Django Reinhardt Jazz Festival near Paris, the Smetana Hall in Prague as well as clubs in New York, Boston, Paris and Vienna.

As the title of Christian Artmann's new CD The Middle of Life suggests, he's no ingénue. The German-born flutist, now based in the San Francisco Bay Area after living for more than 15 years in New York, is a seasoned composer with a small but acclaimed discography that's contributed significantly to keeping the flute in the foreground of the contemporary jazz scene. As for many of us, the experience of the pandemic inspired deep reflection, and with his fourth album (and third for Sunnyside) Artmann takes stock of what matters most.Part of what makes The Middle of Life a strikingly cohesive project is Artmann's choice of ensemble. The album features Hungarian-born pianist Laszlo Gardony (also on Artmann's previous Our Story), as well as Gardony's longtime collaborators, bassist John Lockwood and drummer Yoron Israel.