Click below for a sample track from the new CD!
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!
