In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day.
Nonesuch Records releases The Art of Instrumentation: Homage to Glenn Gould, by violinist Gidon Kremer and his Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, on September 25, 2012, which would have been Gould's 80th birthday. The album comprises 11 pieces and arrangements by contemporary composers that quote from or are inspired by works, mostly by Bach, that Gould famously recorded during his career; two Arnold Schoenberg pieces also are drawn upon in one piece.
Kremer explains: "For the tenth anniversary of the Chamber Music Connects the World festival in Kronberg, Germany in 2010, I took up an idea that happens to have been voiced by a friend of mine, Robert Hurwitz, president of Nonesuch. One day, we were discussing Glenn Gould-whom Bob had known for years and with whom I had spent a long night in the studio, along with András Schiff-when Bob asked me, ‘Wouldn't you like to arrange some of the works played by Glenn Gould for strings sometime?'
"When artistic director Raimund Trenkler asked me what could be done to make the anniversary celebration special, I knew the answer. The focus was to be on one of the greatest figures of all time-Johann Sebastian Bach-and on our times. A bridge was to be built," Kremer continues. "The resulting program's distant gaze extends into the realm of Bach but pays tribute at the same time to one of the greatest personae of modern interpretation, Glenn Gould. A persona, whose handwriting cannot be mistaken for anyone else's. That is precisely what I have always valued so highly and still do-the unique."
December 2012
*****
“Typical of Gidon Kremer's concept albums, it imaginatively showcases a number of contemporary composers”
November 2012
“Kremer is ideally placed to bring together the old and new, having championed Bach and been a tireless promoter of the music of living composer. Yet many of the transcriptions featured here are so faithful that one wonders whether the composers were afraid to tinker too much with the original.”
4th October 2012
****
“It could all seem supremely tacky and self-indulgent, and some of the tracks certainly are, but the best of the arrangements are extremely skilful and seriously musical, and Kremer and his superb young orchestra give them the respectful attention they deserve.”
