MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
Classicsonline AmazonUK   AmazonUS

 

Prelude, Fnugg and Riffs
Leonard BERNSTEIN (1918–1990)
1. Prelude, Fugue and Riffs (1955) [7.19]
Oystein BAADSVIK (b. 1966)/Svein H. GISKE (b. 1973)
2. Fnugg Blue (2002/2003) [7.56]
Boris DIEV (b. 1924)
3. Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra (1966) [9.09]
Mark Anthony TURNAGE (b. 1960) (arr. Anders Högstedt)
4. A Quick Blast (2000)  [8.01]
Fredrik HÖGBERG (b. 1971)
5. Trolltuba [7.53]
Daniel NELSON (b. 1965) arr. Anders HÖGSTEDT
6. Metallephonic Remix [15.48]
Øystein Baadsvik (tuba) (2-6)
Christian Lindberg (trombone) (2)
Swedish Wind Ensemble/Christian Lindberg
rec. January 2006, May 2006, Nacka Aula, Stockholm.
BIS CD1625 [57.33]
Experience Classicsonline


Norwegian tuba virtuoso Øystein Baadsvik continues to forge new areas of repertoire. Having recorded two CDs of music for tuba and piano the present disc is a collaboration with the Swedish Wind Ensemble, whose chief conductor is the trombone virtuoso Christian Lindberg. We are offered a selection of contemporary works for tuba and wind ensemble, with the addition of Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue and Riffs. Thanks to a slight lack of clarity in the booklet notes, I was expecting - perhaps ‘dreading’ is a better description - an adaptation of Prelude, Fugue and Riffs for tuba and wind band. Thankfully this is not what happened. Closer reading led to the realisation that Baadsvik plays in four items and the Swedish Wind Ensemble alone play the Bernstein and the Turnage.
 
The performance of the Bernstein is very creditable, with some fine solo clarinet playing from Anita Bohlin. As a whole the playing lacks a certain swing and leans closer to the Stravinskian element than to swing/jazz. On the whole the players sound as if they are having immense fun.
 
Fnugg Blue is a concertante work for tuba and wind ensemble by Baadsvik and composer Svein Giske. Originally Baadsvik wrote the piece as a tuba solo and Giske expanded it into a work for tuba, synthesizer and brass band. It uses all sorts of advanced techniques on the tuba including multiphonics - singing and playing simultaneously - and percussive effects.
 
The opening sounds as if Baadsvik is playing variants of the Rolling Stones ‘I can’t get no satisfaction’ on a didgeridu. It is not the melodic material per se which is of interest but the sheer joy with which Baadsvivk manages to conjure such a wonderful variety of sounds out of the instrument. In case you are wondering, ‘fnugg’ is a Norwegian word for something small and weightless.
 
Composer Boris Diev is from an older generation and is Russian-trained. His Concerto for Tuba and Wind Orchestra was composed in 1996 and written for Baadsvik who gave the first performance in 1996. It is relatively short for a concerto, but Diev’s material is pretty tough and concentrated. The single movement work uses highly expressionistic melodic material, mixing contemporary techniques with a feeling for tonality, albeit of a more challenging type.
 
Baadsvik takes a rest in the next piece as the Swedish Wind Ensemble play Mark Antony Turnage’s A Quick Blast. This forms the first part of Etudes and Elegies which was commissioned by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2002. Each of the three movements of Etudes and Elegies is written for a different combination of instruments.  A Quick Blast is scored for the wind and percussion sections of the symphony orchestra. The version played here has been slightly re-scored to suit the requirements of the Swedish Wind Ensemble. In many ways the piece comes over as a tougher version of the Bernstein. It has the same rhythmic drive and melodic verve; it is just that Turnage’s harmonic language is stronger and more complex.
 
With Fredrik Högberg’s Trolltuba I was expecting another tuba concertante work, this time based on the Norwegian fairy tale Three Billy Goats Gruff. The CD booklet omits all mention of the fact that the work includes a narrator and a chorus. The narrator tells the story with the tuba and wind ensemble providing background material and illustrative musical interludes. The narration is in English, but the unnamed speaker’s distinctive accent might become a little annoying on repeated listening. The author of the narration is uncredited but it is a little too knowing and self-referential. Towards the end the chorus have to coax the speaker into finishing the piece. Högberg’s music is dramatic and illustrative, but tends to take a back seat to the text. I hope that Högberg has the confidence to drop that narration and rely solely on his musical and dramatic talents to tell the story.
 
Finally Daniel Nelson’s Metallephonic Remix. Nelson trained at the Peabody Conservatory and the University of Chicago but currently lives in Sweden, where he has studied with Lars-Erik Rosell. He has a close relationship with the Nordic Chamber Orchestra for whom he wrote Metallephonic for tuba and orchestra, which Baadsvik premiered. For this disc Anders Hogstedt has re-orchestrated the piece for the Swedish Wind Ensemble.
 
The work arose when Nelson’s neighbour started to play heavy metal rather loudly. Nelson became intrigued by the synthesis between this and his classical music. The result is exciting and up-tempo with an emphasis on percussion. Nelson’s harmonic and musical language is complex but his manipulation of material, with its pulses and repetitions is akin to the later music by such minimalists as Glass and Adams.
 
In all of these pieces, Baadsvik’s tuba playing is dazzling. His tuba is never over-spotlit so that he is very much primus inter pares. He makes light of the extreme technical demands that the pieces make and concentrates on making music. He is well supported by the Swedish Wind Ensemble under Christian Lindberg’s fine direction. They show their true mettle in their two solo items.
 
This is very definitely a disc of wind music for people who think they don’t like wind ensemble. The dazzling playing and fearless approach to contemporary idiom mean that this is a disc to enjoy and to challenge.
 
Robert Hugill
 


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.