Release Date: 18 March 2022
Label: Basho
Packaging Type: Digipak
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 5060945270000
Genres: Jazz Contemporary Classical
Description
Austrian composer Johannes Berauer operates at the exciting junction between classical compositional forms and jazz-influenced improvisational music: through top-notch craftsmanship, he creates music that is honest through and through, that is unpretentious and direct with complete originality, the virtues of composition and improvisation are organically and fluidly fused.
Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the project in 2022, 'Vienna Chamber Diaries Plus Strings' finds him thinking big, integrating contemporary classical composition with jazz interaction and improvisation with full focus. This is his most expansive work in the series to date, featuring a string orchestra assembled in Vienna by cellist Florian Eggner alongside the core Vienna Chamber Diaries Ensemble. The core ensemble functions as a jazz group and includes Gwilym Simcock on piano, Wolfgang Muthspiel on guitar and Yuri Goloubev on bass. It is Berauer's second release for Basho, following the acclaimed 'Hourglass' (SRCD55-2, 2018).
The string section is drawn from the major orchestras and ensembles of Vienna and features two musicians who are also members of the core Vienna Chamber Diaries ensemble - violinist Johannes Dickbauer, also a 'hybrid' musician with experience as an improviser, and Florian Eggner.
The music on the album is divided into two parts, but these parts are interwoven to create contrast in texture, density and mood. There are five pieces with the full Vienna Chamber Diaries ensemble and string section interspersed with four small band pieces with varying instrumentation (Valse Bleue features the violin, Florentin features bass clarinet and accordion, the remaining two are performed by a trio of Simcock, Gesing and Goloubev).
'Vienna Chamber Diaries plus Strings' is Johannes Berauer's most ambitious and successful integration of the classical and jazz worlds to date. It is a detailed and absorbing work that repays close attention.
Tracklisting
The Printmakers & Norma Winstone
Julian Siegel Quartet
Alec Dankworth
The Golden Age Of Steam
Stan Sulzmann
The Impossible Gentlemen
Max Steuer & Peter Sykes
Trish Clowes
Johannes Berauer
Johannes Berauer
