Stroppa / Hoelscher - Miniature Estrose - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

This disc features Bram Stadhouders, one of the most promising jazz guitarists of the Netherlands, and Aart Strootman, a classical music pioneer on guitar. Endless improvisation, composing, and sharing of thoughts have resulted in a very special duo, with a mix of classical and jazz on two acoustic guitars. The album was recorded in the south of the Netherlands in an abandoned monastery, where the peace and spiritual atmosphere contributed to the quality of the music.

When female composers created their many piano miniatures in the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was not because they were unable to express themselves in larger forms. Rather, it was one of the few genres to be granted to them by their male competitors. But they knew how to make a virtue out of necessity, as Viviane Goergen impressively shows here. InchAs rich in nuances as presented here by the Luxembourg-Swiss pianist Viviane Goergen, each of these miniatures becomes a treasure of it's own. A sense of inner calm characterizes these interpretations, which concentrate entirely on musical expression. Goergen finds in the miniatures the right colors and nuances to bring the distinctive moods of the music to be heard. With a fine, clear attack, differentiation of dynamics and transparency of musical structure, the pianist manages to keep the listener's interest through the whole program.Inch (Remy Franck, Pizzicato)

Marco Stroppa views composition as musical research and is constantly aware of the dual nature of artistic thought, Inchthe discourse about the thought and the thought itself.Inch On this , the Ensemble KNM Berlin explores the topological qualities of the sound worlds in three of Stroppa's chamber music works. All three pieces demonstrate Marco Stroppa's highly sensitive experimentation with sounds at the threshold of audibility. As a philosopher of sound, all sonorities are for him instruments of epistemology; as a musical poet, he tells stories with sensual, tactile, dynamic, and constantly changing sounds, the interpretation of which is always left up to the individual listener. The string quartet InchUn Segno nello SpazioInch (1994) deals with the idea of a sign in space that undergoes an intense increase of density, making the three-dimensionality of the space palpable. In the seven miniature movements of InchHommage à Gy. K.Inch for clarinet, viola, and piano (1997-2003), Stroppa honors the Hungarian composer György Kurtág. The performers repeatedly change their positions on the stage, creating differing effects which can be experienced purely acoustically thanks to skillfully managed microphone placement and audio mastering. In InchOsja, Sieben Strophen für eine literarische DrohneInch (2005/2013) for violin, violoncello, and piano, Stroppa reflects on the life of the Russian poet Joseph Brodsky through two of his poems.