Various Artists - Vivid Viola: Best Loved Classical Viola Music - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Jazz journalist Bert Jansma writes InchSuch nonsense, those discussions about jazz-then, jazz-now, jazz-in-the-future, and jazz-how! These were my first thoughts while listening to InchRise and ShineInch by the Dutch Ruud Breuls/Simon Rigter Quintet. Because I heard pure jazz, jazz of all eras. Not pretentious, no affectation, no back-door agendas, but jazz by five musicians who got together 'just' to make beautiful music. Each of them is highly skilled, and always conscious of the emotional content of their sound. Tenor sax player Simon Rigter and trumpeter Ruud Breuls first got together in 1997 under the leadership of pianist and father of Dutch Jazz Cees Slinger, in the band Buddies in Soul. Slinger passed away in 2007, leaving the 'buddies' Breuls and Rigter on their own. Both are highly respected soloists in big bands, the former in the German WDR Big Band, the latter in the jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw. In their current quintet, they are joined by a rhythm section of the same high caliber pianist Karel Boehlee, bass player Jos Machtel and the versatile drummer Marcel Serierse. Of the compositions they present here, only one is standard InchLet's Cool OneInch by Thelonious Monk. The remaining seven are their own work, emphasizing the musical personality of the band...Inch Album Tracks 1. Mr. T 2. Let's Cool One 3. Blanton 4. Goodbye Cerbaia 5. Olivia's Dance 6. Get Your Fringe Back 7. Passage of Jacq 8. Rise and Shine

Following it's Gramophone Editor's Choice album Echoes of an Old Hall, Medieval expert Gothic Voices has recorded The Splendour of Florence, a collection of Franco-Flemish music that was found in or associated with Florence. Occupying pride of place, Dufay's motet Nuper rosarum flores is widely thought to reflect the proportions of the newly completed dome of Florence cathedral, for which it was written at the cathedral's consecration in 1436. The other works - by Franco-Flemish composers Ockeghem, Busnois, Tinctoris, van Ghizeghem and others - are taken from a couple of Florentine chansonniers, which in turn document the wide dissemination of their music in the thriving Tuscan city. This album thus showcases Florence in all it's splendour and lavishness, a city that proved a creative magnet for the highly-skilled and inventive compositional work of the outstanding composers of the Burgundian tradition. Album Tracks 2. Mirandas Parit Haec Urbs 16. Virgo Dei Throno Digna 19. Nuper Rosarum Flores

In a score the viola part is generally used for middle voices; less usually for soloistic purposes. On the other hand, with it's dark velvet-like timbre and warm sound spectrum the viola possesses a distinguished charm. These characteristics were actually only disclosed at the end of the 19th century. Moreover, the technique of viola playing kept developing from then on constantly. Violists on their side, began to arrange shorter but very well-known pieces for their instrument themselves. What resulted was nothing less than little treasures, gems. Eberhard Klemmstein selected a number of these wonderful offers which he arranged partially himself and which, however, he had not yet recorded and published. Together with his pianist, Oda Schmidt, he goes on a stroll through the world of shorter encore pieces of the romantic and late-romantic eras. In the middle are placed the very rarely heard InchHebrew MelodiesInch by Joseph Joachim, originally written for the viola and Klemmstein's own Viola Sonata from 2013. Thus, the present album is a goldmine not only for fans of the viola but also for professionals, while being an enriching discovery for all lovers of classical music.