Theo Hillborg - Solitary Poems for Soprano Saxophone - SUPER-AUDIO CD [Super Audio CD (SACD)]

On his third outing for Criss Cross, pianist Joel Weiskopf returns to the trio that launched his career as a leader. His sidemen require no introduction to jazz fans - bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade (fresh from extensive touring the with great Wayne Shorter) are on hand to aid Weiskopf in his quest. This album features nine originals and one heavily reworked standard, all of which attest to Weiskopf's gifts as both a player and composer.

12 years after his album entitled 'Italian Virtuosi of the Chitarrone' (BIS-1899), Jakob Lindberg returns to his magnificent theorbo, specially built for him by the luthier Michael Lowe, based on an instrument preserved in the Musee de la Musique in Paris.One of the most spectacular instruments of the early baroque owing to it's length and great number of strings, the theorbo was originally designed to accompany the voice, but is also ideally suited to solo performance. For this disc, Lindberg has chosen pieces by Robert de Visee, one of the great French masters of the lute, theorbo and guitar repertoire and a favourite of Louis XIV. The recording features dances as well as character pieces, including a moving 'Plainte' in memory of his two deceased daughters. It also includes de Visee's arrangements of compositions by Lully, Couperin and Purcell as well as his own version of Les Folies d'Espagne, a very popular chord progression that inspired so many composers of his time.Jakob Lindberg writes 'I can't help but be seduced by the grace of the instrument's lines, the resonance of it's sonorities, and by the unmistakably French elegance of this remarkable composer.'

A whole life, from birth to death, or the whole world, from the rising of the sun to it's setting nothing less than this is Bach's Goldberg Variations for saxophonist Peter Vigh. With the Aria at the beginning and at the end, a circle closes, and in between all sorts of things happen. Vigh orchestrated the monumental cycle for his Berlage Saxophone Quartet and has now recorded it on Super Audio album. The quartet tells of the ups and downs of existence with a sensitive sound an experience that is as entertaining as it is deeply moving. Whether children playing (Variation 17) or a funeral procession (Variation 21) the associations that Bach's music evokes are intensely savored through the individual perspectives of the four Berlage artists. Ten different instruments are used and provide a colorful range that is second to none. And especially in the polyphonic parts, the work gains a new degree of transparency through the distribution among several players. To achieve this, the four Dutchmen went back to school Guided by baroque specialist Walter van Hauwe, they intensively studied historical playing practice. And so one hears how surprising sounds with speaking articulation, elegant ornamentation technique and striking phrasing combine with the very highest pleasurable playing culture. With this new , Lars Niederstrasser, Peter Vigh, Juani Palop and Eva van Grinsven once again demonstrate their extraordinary stylistic range.