Archive for the ‘Discography’ Category

“Garden Scene” on Analekta

Sep 6th, 09 / 0 Comments

Click below for a sample track from the new CD!

01-Korngold-Garden-Scene.mp3Garden Scene, Joel Quarrington

I am really happy to announce the September 22nd release of my newest and  BEST! recording to date from the Analekta record company of Montreal, “Garden Scene”.

This recital program is the one I prepared for the 2007 International Society of Bassists Convention in Oklahoma City. After that very successful recital I was very honoured and flattered to be invited to play all over the world! I took the same program to Copenhagen, Vienna, Beijing as well as right here at the International Chamber Music Festival in Ottawa.

For the actual recording of “Garden Scene”, I had the very good fortune to work with my life long colleague and friend Roberto Occhipinti who acted as the producer and editor. Roberto is probably best known for his work in jazz although he did start out as a classical player and in fact was formerly the Principal Bassist of the Canadian Opera Company. He has played and recorded extensively with Cuban expatriate jazz pianist Hilario Durán and Jane Bunnett, he has his own R&B band, “Soul Stew”, and has toured with many others like the “Gorillaz”; in more recent years he has been the producer for classical artists such as the True North Brass, Quartetto Gelatto, the Gryphon Trio, the St. Lawrence Quartet and Via Salzburg. His many awards include National Jazz Awards, Junos, as well as a Socan award he received for his soundtrack for the cartoon series, “George Shrinks”.

As the recording process unfolded, Roberto showed me though was how truly fantastic his ears are! He obviously knows how to record a bass (his answer; 10 microphones) and many who have heard “Garden Scene” have commented that it is probably the best recorded bass sound they have heard. I like to point out that despite my many attempts at helping him edit the cd, he ignored me completely and did it by himself, and by ear alone, that is to say, with no music scores!

I would encourage those interested to check out Roberto’s website, http://www.robertoocchipinti.com to see and hear his many excellent recordings and compositions.

I am also quite pleased about the repertoire on this cd; My transcriptions of the Korngold “Garden Scene” as well as the complete J.C. Bach “Concerto in G minor” (originally c minor for viola) are included as well as the world premiere recording of the very important “Solo Sonata” by Mieczyslaw Weinberg whose close friend and mentor was Shostakovich. I feel this is a very important original work for bass that should be a staple of our 20th century repertoire.

My longtime accompanist, Andrew Burashko and I round out the program with the “Four Pieces” by Gliere which I think sound really great and my old favourite the Bottesini “Elegy”. After all this time it was wonderful to re-record that work and I find our performance to be so much better than our original Naxos recording in every way.

The largest classical record company in Canada “Analekta” purchased our recording and took over all the production concerns and distribution which I couldn’t be happier about.

The recording is available from itunes, Amazon and others, or else directly from Analekta itself (Click links below).  It is not available until after September 22nd release though!

analekta_logo amazon

BOTTESINI: Vol. 2 on Naxos

Mar 6th, 08 / Comments Off

Bottesini, Vol 2

Bottesini, Vol 2

Giovanni Bottesini enjoyed a globe-trotting career as “the Paganini of the double bass”. He was also a successful conductor and a composer, although only the music he wrote for his own instrument has outlived him. Many of the works on this recording emphasize the essential bel canto quality of Bottesini’s inspiration, most explicitly in the dazzling Bellini Fantasia, but also in the duets with clarinet and soprano which demand virtuosity of both feeling and technique. The Concerto No. 2 is a fully mature work, from the somewhat laconic first movement, through the simply singing second, to the third, driven by a rhythmic figure typical of the polonaise and the Cuban bolero.

You can buy the album here.

Virtuoso Reality on CBC Records

Aug 12th, 03 / Comments Off
Virtuoso Reality

Virtuoso Reality

From the CD liner notes by Rick Phillips, project producer:

Joel Quarrington — the non-conformist, the rebel, the rabble-rouser? Hardly the adjectives we would use to describe a telented classical musician, let alone a Double bass player. But Joel Quarrington is all of these, and more.

First of all he plays with the German bow, not the French. There are two types of bowing techniques for the Double bass, and there is a lot of controversy and argument about their relative merits. The French bow is held much like the violin or cello bow, with the hand over the end. The German bow is believed to have evolved out of ancient Viol playing. It has a different, more broad end to it, and the hand is turned 90 degrees so that the end of the bow is in the palm of the hand, rather than underneath it. Although Joel originally learned the instrument using the French bow, since 1983 has employed the German bow, preferring the lesser amount of pressure needed, and the richer variety of colours he feels are available. But in his position as Principal Double bass with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Joel is the only one of the eight bass players in the orchestra who employs the German technique. Although it’s not rare to have a mixture of French and German techniques in bass sections, more often than not, there is uniformity of bowing — one or the other.

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Bottesini, Vol. 1

Sep 6th, 97 / Comments Off
Bottesini, Vol. 1

Bottesini, Vol. 1

From the CD liner notes by Jeffrey L. Stokes, Dean of Music at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada:

It was a curious twist of fate that produced the nineteenth century’s reigning double bass virtuoso. when a boy of fourteen, Bottesini had already greatly developed his musical talents as a choirboy, a violinist, and a timpani player. His father sought a place for him in the Milan Conservatory, but only two were available; for bassoon, and double bass. Double bass it was then. He prepared a successful audition in a matter of weeks, and only four years later, a surprizingly short time by the standards of the day, still a teenager, he left with a prize of 300 francs for solo playing. This money financed the acquisition of an instrument of Carlo Testore, and a globetrotting career as “the Paganini of the Double Bass” was launched.

The anecdote should be read not just as a curious chapter in the biography of a prodigy, but also as early evidence of the extraordinary versatility that Bottesini exhibited for the rest of his life. He toured throughout Europe, Latin America, and the United States, impressing audiences with his musicality as much as he astounded them with technical mastery of a “cumbrous” instrument. An English writer who heard his London début performance in 1849 recalled that “it was not only marvellous as a tour de fource, but the consummate skill of this great artist enabled his to produce a result delightful even for the most fastidous musician to listen to”.

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