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Spin Trumpet Michael T. OTTO Der Erlkönig for Bb trumpet, speaker and piano 9 lustige Fanfaren und ein Lied for Bb trumpet (solo) cafordenforca 1 for Flügelhorn solo Calme for Flügelhorn and piano Leon’s Cry for Trumpet and piano Alp(en)traum for Didgeridoo, Shell and Flügelhorn cafordenforca II for trumpet solo Sotù for Didgeridoo and Shell a simple evening song for Flügelhorn and piano Michael T. Otto, Bb trumpet, flügelhorn, muschelhorn, didgeridoo; Claudia C. Otto, speaker; Andrea Grözinger, piano; Sepp Schlotter, techno play-a-long (sic); Peter Madsen, jazz piano Recorded La salle de concert of the chateau Montfort Langenargen, February 2003 THOROFON CTH 2484 [53.21]

"Off the Wall" is the phrase that comes to mind. How many supposedly classical CDs do you encounter that begin with a cow mooing loudly to the accompaniment of bird-song, a burbling stream and a cheerful trumpet fanfare? Well, this one does, and the Fanfare der grünen Kuh (Fanfare of the Green Cow) which makes such an auspicious opening to this recording is succeeded by such gems as Unterwasser-Fanfare (Underwater Fanfare), Fanfare für den faulen Trompeter (Fanfare for the Lazy Trumpeter) and Fanfare der Leisen Spinne (Fanfare for the quiet spider), while track 6 – Fanfare for the Lazy Trumpeter Version C – is entirely silent, and dedicated, unsurprisingly, to John Cage. This engaging load of nonsense brings to mind very much the tongue-in-cheek Berio of, for example, the trombone Sequenza. This very odd CD then progresses into slightly more extended pieces. A three-part treatment of Goethe’s Der Erlkönig (given as The Elf-king) follows, firstly for spoken voice, in full, then a humorously ‘potted’ version, and finally another abbreviation of the text with ‘descriptive’ music for trumpet and piano. Fairly hilarious, if your German is up to it! And so it goes on; I confess that I eventually found the repertoire of slides and ‘funny’ noises became wearing. Otto is however a talented and unusual guy. He has taken the trouble of interspersing the more obscure utterances with some accessible and immediately enjoyable numbers. These include the bittersweet Calme or the faux-naïf Simple Evening Song that fills the last track. This is a strange but actually quite attractive CD: it could, for example, provide highly atmospheric background music for a certain kind of drinks party. Whether that’s a recommendation or not I leave up to you; suffice it to say, I enjoyed it. Gwyn Parry-Jones Advertising Rates Visitor stats MusicWeb International has over 40,000 Classical CD reviews on offer Discs received Having a problem Donating? Gerard Hoffnung Concerts & The Bricklayer Story   New Releases New Releases   MusicWeb sells the Polish catalogue CDAccord £10.50 post free W-W MusicWeb sells the Arcodiva catalogue £12.00 post free W-W £11.75 post-free world- wide MusicWeb can now offer you discs from the following catalogues: Prices include postage [Acte Préalable £13.50] [Arcodiva £12.00] [Avie from £6.25] [British Music Society £12.00] [CDACCORD from £13.50 ] [ClassicO £12.50] [Hallé from £11] [Heritage £10] [Hortus £14.99 ] [Lyrita ONLY £11.75 ] [Nimbus Special prices] [Northern Flowers £13.50] [REDCLIFFE £11 ] [Sheva £11] [Tactus £11.50 ] [Talent from £12.00 ] [Toccata Classics £10.50 ] Musicweb Special Offers Monthly Best Buys     Google Ads - for information about privacy matters, click here.  Amazon Musicweb International is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com

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