Christopher Rouse

[Brian]

I don't know what got it in my head yesterday to look up Christopher Rouse and read about his career - I think I was thinking about assembling an "American violin concertos" program with sequels to the Barber - but it inspired a little mini-marathon. Reading through this thread was a very interesting experience. We clearly have a small group of Rouse fans, or at least students of the composer. The past posts also delineate a clear four-act trajectory in his work:

pre-1985: the young rebel, avant garde influenced
1985-1995: what Apollo once called his "interesting period," with an unusual mixture of stillness, loudness, direct emotional appeals, and play
1995-2010: a slightly bored composer experimenting with games, chance, name-spelling, and other gimmicks
2011-2019: cancer diagnosis refocuses his energy and creates a more personal, emotional, urgent expressiveness

Symphony No. 1 (1986) - a huge single-movement structure, primarily slow (though not primarily quiet). It's like the arc of the first movement of Shostakovich's Sixth, but tonally more like late (post-1986) Penderecki in its anguish and abstraction. I guess you could also draw comparisons to DSCH Eleventh (the alternations of hushed stillness and violence), Kalevi Aho (who also mostly worked later), and even Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. Rouse directly credits Shostakovich, Sibelius, Hartmann, and Bruckner as influences. Near the end (23'), there is a direct quote of Bruckner's Seventh on Wagner tubas, but the quote doesn't last as long as you'd expect. It's not like Metamorphosen. It's underpinned the whole piece's motivic content, but he just gives you a glance.

Still, now I'm talking about comparison points instead of taking Rouse on his own. That's not fair to any composer. It is a gripping experience even at adagio tempo. Even when you're caught up in some of the big, violent climaxes, this is clearly a work where you have to take the long view, to sit back a bit and process the full structure. What he has to express, he expresses very slowly and patiently. In a way, this would be a difficult piece to experience live, because it requires intense focus but does not reward it too frequently. The last few minutes of hushed string prayer are truly expressive and beautiful. Quiet ending.

Phantasmata (1981, 1985) - The two dates are because "The Infernal Machine" was written first, then the other two pieces later. Any can be played separately; I saw "The Infernal Machine" live when I was a teenager (note visible at the start of this thread!). "The Evestrum of Juan de la Cruz in the Sagrada Familia at 3 A.M." is for strings and percussion only and is a good example of a possible complaint about Rouse: when he isn't being very loud, he is being very quiet. He is so committed to extremes, there are not a lot of middles. This is a very soft, small, watercolor-like string piece with only a handful of big, sweeping gestures to get the attention. "The Infernal Machine" is so quick, so perpetual-motion, that it cannot really be too loud without swamping the sound. It's full of interesting textures and sounds instead, and loads of solos for everybody. "Bump," which Rouse described as a conga line in hell, is the most fun to me, and lives up exactly to that promise. Love hearing a bit of baritone saxophone.



Rapture (2000) - Probably the "easiest" and most crowd-pleasing Rouse work to program at a concert. At 13 minutes, Rapture moves in one great big crescendo and one great big accelerando, from a slow, calm opening that brings Sibelius to mind with its "healing" brass prayers, to a crash-bang joyous ending full of cymbal and timpani rolls. Though the word "Rapture" does not indicate a religious inspiration, you can definitely tell some secular form of joyous experience is happening here. It's Rouse's least dissonant work, the one with the fewest surprise outbursts, and the most straightforwardly happy. Even if you lean toward the doom-and-gloom school of music, though, you'll find much to appreciate in the orchestration skill and structural craft.

Violin Concerto (1991) - Well, anyone who writes a concerto for Cho-Liang Lin has my respect. One of the most underrated violinists of our time. This one is in two movements, Barcarola and Toccata, of 13 and 11 minutes. The barcarolle allows the violinist to wax rhapsodic and melodic in an environment that tosses back and forth between moods. When the violinist briefly takes a break near the beginning, a classic Rouse outburst steps in. But, although he has lots of percussion at work, he is careful to allow the violinist center stage, with writing that is more romantic than metal. There is a fast section in this first movement, and a moderately gloomy orchestral climax leading to a muted cadenza.

This leads very neatly into the fast cadenza, which is full of all kinds of orchestral excitement with a great violin line laid on top. The music often tangles itself into dissonant knots and then teases itself apart again. At 3', I catch a great big quote of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. After a brief slow interlude section, the violin gets to fiddle a whole bunch at the end. This is a fun, smart, balanced piece that avoids some of the Rouseian "traps" of too-extreme dynamics and too-static landscapes. It's well-made for concert display. I do wish that there was a little more "explanation" to the structure of the finale, in the end sequence where we go slow violin solo, orchestra suddenly speeds things up, fast violin solo, ending. It does feel like he realized he didn't have enough solos and just tossed them all in at the end. But at least they're fun (and incredibly hard!).

Der gerettete Alberich (1997) - Even though this is programmed at the start of the CD, I saved it to the end out of dread, based on Apollo's posts above. It is a Wagner pastiche that starts with the famous ending of the Ring operas and ends with the famous beginning. Sure enough, silliness starts immediately, as the big opening Wagner quote is immediately followed by a solo cadenza that sounds like the percussionist is trying and failing to start an old-timey car. Maybe a Model T. The rest of the movement is at least mostly sober, just with a continual running percussion commentary.

Percussion concertos are much, much more fun in person because of the visual elements of both the playing and the scampering around between instruments. Here, since that element is not present, you don't really get that effect. You could easily listen to the piece on CD and imagine it's the work of 3-4 percussionists running around. Slow movements are also a problem. Here, though, Rouse creates his own trouble by having the slow movement lead straight into the finale - which begins with a rock/salsa outburst, soloist perched on a rock drum set. It's very silly indeed, and then leads into a section where Wagner quotes, awakened with rage perhaps by the sacrilege of the salsa bit, return with vengeance.

In general, like Apollo, I find the piece rather silly, although at least I don't know enough about Wagner to be offended  The finale, oddly, is most compelling to me, because I constructed the mental narrative of Wagner awakening from the dead to punish Rouse for his rock/pop silliness. The music perfectly fits that little image. Plus, there's a cadenza, and me like when drum goes bang. Overall, though, this is definitely less substantial than some of the other music I heard today. Maybe not less substantial than the violin concerto, actually - just sillier.

[foxandpeng]

I don't know what got it in my head yesterday to look up Christopher Rouse and read about his career - I think I was thinking about assembling an "American violin concertos" program with sequels to the Barber - but it inspired a little mini-marathon. Reading through this thread was a very interesting experience. We clearly have a small group of Rouse fans, or at least students of the composer. The past posts also delineate a clear four-act trajectory in his work:

pre-1985: the young rebel, avant garde influenced
1985-1995: what Apollo once called his "interesting period," with an unusual mixture of stillness, loudness, direct emotional appeals, and play
1995-2010: a slightly bored composer experimenting with games, chance, name-spelling, and other gimmicks
2011-2019: cancer diagnosis refocuses his energy and creates a more personal, emotional, urgent expressiveness

Symphony No. 1 (1986) - a huge single-movement structure, primarily slow (though not primarily quiet). It's like the arc of the first movement of Shostakovich's Sixth, but tonally more like late (post-1986) Penderecki in its anguish and abstraction. I guess you could also draw comparisons to DSCH Eleventh (the alternations of hushed stillness and violence), Kalevi Aho (who also mostly worked later), and even Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. Rouse directly credits Shostakovich, Sibelius, Hartmann, and Bruckner as influences. Near the end (23'), there is a direct quote of Bruckner's Seventh on Wagner tubas, but the quote doesn't last as long as you'd expect. It's not like Metamorphosen. It's underpinned the whole piece's motivic content, but he just gives you a glance.

Still, now I'm talking about comparison points instead of taking Rouse on his own. That's not fair to any composer. It is a gripping experience even at adagio tempo. Even when you're caught up in some of the big, violent climaxes, this is clearly a work where you have to take the long view, to sit back a bit and process the full structure. What he has to express, he expresses very slowly and patiently. In a way, this would be a difficult piece to experience live, because it requires intense focus but does not reward it too frequently. The last few minutes of hushed string prayer are truly expressive and beautiful. Quiet ending.

Phantasmata (1981, 1985) - The two dates are because "The Infernal Machine" was written first, then the other two pieces later. Any can be played separately; I saw "The Infernal Machine" live when I was a teenager (note visible at the start of this thread!). "The Evestrum of Juan de la Cruz in the Sagrada Familia at 3 A.M." is for strings and percussion only and is a good example of a possible complaint about Rouse: when he isn't being very loud, he is being very quiet. He is so committed to extremes, there are not a lot of middles. This is a very soft, small, watercolor-like string piece with only a handful of big, sweeping gestures to get the attention. "The Infernal Machine" is so quick, so perpetual-motion, that it cannot really be too loud without swamping the sound. It's full of interesting textures and sounds instead, and loads of solos for everybody. "Bump," which Rouse described as a conga line in hell, is the most fun to me, and lives up exactly to that promise. Love hearing a bit of baritone saxophone.



Rapture (2000) - Probably the "easiest" and most crowd-pleasing Rouse work to program at a concert. At 13 minutes, Rapture moves in one great big crescendo and one great big accelerando, from a slow, calm opening that brings Sibelius to mind with its "healing" brass prayers, to a crash-bang joyous ending full of cymbal and timpani rolls. Though the word "Rapture" does not indicate a religious inspiration, you can definitely tell some secular form of joyous experience is happening here. It's Rouse's least dissonant work, the one with the fewest surprise outbursts, and the most straightforwardly happy. Even if you lean toward the doom-and-gloom school of music, though, you'll find much to appreciate in the orchestration skill and structural craft.

Violin Concerto (1991) - Well, anyone who writes a concerto for Cho-Liang Lin has my respect. One of the most underrated violinists of our time. This one is in two movements, Barcarola and Toccata, of 13 and 11 minutes. The barcarolle allows the violinist to wax rhapsodic and melodic in an environment that tosses back and forth between moods. When the violinist briefly takes a break near the beginning, a classic Rouse outburst steps in. But, although he has lots of percussion at work, he is careful to allow the violinist center stage, with writing that is more romantic than metal. There is a fast section in this first movement, and a moderately gloomy orchestral climax leading to a muted cadenza.

This leads very neatly into the fast cadenza, which is full of all kinds of orchestral excitement with a great violin line laid on top. The music often tangles itself into dissonant knots and then teases itself apart again. At 3', I catch a great big quote of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. After a brief slow interlude section, the violin gets to fiddle a whole bunch at the end. This is a fun, smart, balanced piece that avoids some of the Rouseian "traps" of too-extreme dynamics and too-static landscapes. It's well-made for concert display. I do wish that there was a little more "explanation" to the structure of the finale, in the end sequence where we go slow violin solo, orchestra suddenly speeds things up, fast violin solo, ending. It does feel like he realized he didn't have enough solos and just tossed them all in at the end. But at least they're fun (and incredibly hard!).

Der gerettete Alberich (1997) - Even though this is programmed at the start of the CD, I saved it to the end out of dread, based on Apollo's posts above. It is a Wagner pastiche that starts with the famous ending of the Ring operas and ends with the famous beginning. Sure enough, silliness starts immediately, as the big opening Wagner quote is immediately followed by a solo cadenza that sounds like the percussionist is trying and failing to start an old-timey car. Maybe a Model T. The rest of the movement is at least mostly sober, just with a continual running percussion commentary.

Percussion concertos are much, much more fun in person because of the visual elements of both the playing and the scampering around between instruments. Here, since that element is not present, you don't really get that effect. You could easily listen to the piece on CD and imagine it's the work of 3-4 percussionists running around. Slow movements are also a problem. Here, though, Rouse creates his own trouble by having the slow movement lead straight into the finale - which begins with a rock/salsa outburst, soloist perched on a rock drum set. It's very silly indeed, and then leads into a section where Wagner quotes, awakened with rage perhaps by the sacrilege of the salsa bit, return with vengeance.

In general, like Apollo, I find the piece rather silly, although at least I don't know enough about Wagner to be offended  The finale, oddly, is most compelling to me, because I constructed the mental narrative of Wagner awakening from the dead to punish Rouse for his rock/pop silliness. The music perfectly fits that little image. Plus, there's a cadenza, and me like when drum goes bang. Overall, though, this is definitely less substantial than some of the other music I heard today. Maybe not less substantial than the violin concerto, actually - just sillier.

"We clearly have a small group of Rouse fans, or at least students of the composer."

We most certainly do! Rouse is excellent. Helpful post, sir!

[relm1]

I don't know what got it in my head yesterday to look up Christopher Rouse and read about his career - I think I was thinking about assembling an "American violin concertos" program with sequels to the Barber - but it inspired a little mini-marathon. Reading through this thread was a very interesting experience. We clearly have a small group of Rouse fans, or at least students of the composer. The past posts also delineate a clear four-act trajectory in his work:

pre-1985: the young rebel, avant garde influenced
1985-1995: what Apollo once called his "interesting period," with an unusual mixture of stillness, loudness, direct emotional appeals, and play
1995-2010: a slightly bored composer experimenting with games, chance, name-spelling, and other gimmicks
2011-2019: cancer diagnosis refocuses his energy and creates a more personal, emotional, urgent expressiveness

Symphony No. 1 (1986) - a huge single-movement structure, primarily slow (though not primarily quiet). It's like the arc of the first movement of Shostakovich's Sixth, but tonally more like late (post-1986) Penderecki in its anguish and abstraction. I guess you could also draw comparisons to DSCH Eleventh (the alternations of hushed stillness and violence), Kalevi Aho (who also mostly worked later), and even Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. Rouse directly credits Shostakovich, Sibelius, Hartmann, and Bruckner as influences. Near the end (23'), there is a direct quote of Bruckner's Seventh on Wagner tubas, but the quote doesn't last as long as you'd expect. It's not like Metamorphosen. It's underpinned the whole piece's motivic content, but he just gives you a glance.

Still, now I'm talking about comparison points instead of taking Rouse on his own. That's not fair to any composer. It is a gripping experience even at adagio tempo. Even when you're caught up in some of the big, violent climaxes, this is clearly a work where you have to take the long view, to sit back a bit and process the full structure. What he has to express, he expresses very slowly and patiently. In a way, this would be a difficult piece to experience live, because it requires intense focus but does not reward it too frequently. The last few minutes of hushed string prayer are truly expressive and beautiful. Quiet ending.

Phantasmata (1981, 1985) - The two dates are because "The Infernal Machine" was written first, then the other two pieces later. Any can be played separately; I saw "The Infernal Machine" live when I was a teenager (note visible at the start of this thread!). "The Evestrum of Juan de la Cruz in the Sagrada Familia at 3 A.M." is for strings and percussion only and is a good example of a possible complaint about Rouse: when he isn't being very loud, he is being very quiet. He is so committed to extremes, there are not a lot of middles. This is a very soft, small, watercolor-like string piece with only a handful of big, sweeping gestures to get the attention. "The Infernal Machine" is so quick, so perpetual-motion, that it cannot really be too loud without swamping the sound. It's full of interesting textures and sounds instead, and loads of solos for everybody. "Bump," which Rouse described as a conga line in hell, is the most fun to me, and lives up exactly to that promise. Love hearing a bit of baritone saxophone.



Rapture (2000) - Probably the "easiest" and most crowd-pleasing Rouse work to program at a concert. At 13 minutes, Rapture moves in one great big crescendo and one great big accelerando, from a slow, calm opening that brings Sibelius to mind with its "healing" brass prayers, to a crash-bang joyous ending full of cymbal and timpani rolls. Though the word "Rapture" does not indicate a religious inspiration, you can definitely tell some secular form of joyous experience is happening here. It's Rouse's least dissonant work, the one with the fewest surprise outbursts, and the most straightforwardly happy. Even if you lean toward the doom-and-gloom school of music, though, you'll find much to appreciate in the orchestration skill and structural craft.

Violin Concerto (1991) - Well, anyone who writes a concerto for Cho-Liang Lin has my respect. One of the most underrated violinists of our time. This one is in two movements, Barcarola and Toccata, of 13 and 11 minutes. The barcarolle allows the violinist to wax rhapsodic and melodic in an environment that tosses back and forth between moods. When the violinist briefly takes a break near the beginning, a classic Rouse outburst steps in. But, although he has lots of percussion at work, he is careful to allow the violinist center stage, with writing that is more romantic than metal. There is a fast section in this first movement, and a moderately gloomy orchestral climax leading to a muted cadenza.

This leads very neatly into the fast cadenza, which is full of all kinds of orchestral excitement with a great violin line laid on top. The music often tangles itself into dissonant knots and then teases itself apart again. At 3', I catch a great big quote of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony. After a brief slow interlude section, the violin gets to fiddle a whole bunch at the end. This is a fun, smart, balanced piece that avoids some of the Rouseian "traps" of too-extreme dynamics and too-static landscapes. It's well-made for concert display. I do wish that there was a little more "explanation" to the structure of the finale, in the end sequence where we go slow violin solo, orchestra suddenly speeds things up, fast violin solo, ending. It does feel like he realized he didn't have enough solos and just tossed them all in at the end. But at least they're fun (and incredibly hard!).

Der gerettete Alberich (1997) - Even though this is programmed at the start of the CD, I saved it to the end out of dread, based on Apollo's posts above. It is a Wagner pastiche that starts with the famous ending of the Ring operas and ends with the famous beginning. Sure enough, silliness starts immediately, as the big opening Wagner quote is immediately followed by a solo cadenza that sounds like the percussionist is trying and failing to start an old-timey car. Maybe a Model T. The rest of the movement is at least mostly sober, just with a continual running percussion commentary.

Percussion concertos are much, much more fun in person because of the visual elements of both the playing and the scampering around between instruments. Here, since that element is not present, you don't really get that effect. You could easily listen to the piece on CD and imagine it's the work of 3-4 percussionists running around. Slow movements are also a problem. Here, though, Rouse creates his own trouble by having the slow movement lead straight into the finale - which begins with a rock/salsa outburst, soloist perched on a rock drum set. It's very silly indeed, and then leads into a section where Wagner quotes, awakened with rage perhaps by the sacrilege of the salsa bit, return with vengeance.

In general, like Apollo, I find the piece rather silly, although at least I don't know enough about Wagner to be offended  The finale, oddly, is most compelling to me, because I constructed the mental narrative of Wagner awakening from the dead to punish Rouse for his rock/pop silliness. The music perfectly fits that little image. Plus, there's a cadenza, and me like when drum goes bang. Overall, though, this is definitely less substantial than some of the other music I heard today. Maybe not less substantial than the violin concerto, actually - just sillier.

I've heard multiple Rouse performances including No. 1 with Christoph Eschenbach/Houston Symphony live.  It was fantastic.  I don't know why you would say "...this would be a difficult piece to experience live, because it requires intense focus but does not reward it too frequently."  Not at all.  It was very well received and full of immediacy.  Also quotes of Allan Pettersson. 

I was at the Requiem premiere with the composer in attendance and the trombone concerto plus other works (orchestral works I forgot what they were).  Generally, always well received and very wide dynamic range but I thought this was similar to Schnittke, Kincheli, and other Eastern European composers of the same period where music went from ppp to fff without transition. 

He was friendly and verbose.  Loved chatting about music...sometimes far too long!  Think someone showing their vacation slides. 

[Brian]

First listen to the Trombone Concerto and I can immediately understand why it has been so popular in this thread. It is moody, atmospheric, builds in very steady, clear arcs of volume and power, gives Joseph Alessi a lot of work to do, and (through its pursuit of slower, darker moods) really showcases the trombone well as a solo instrument. I love the chaotic moment where all the orchestral trombones erupt as well. I will have to listen again sometime elsewhere, as my office proved a less than ideal setting: even with good headphones, the steady air circulation and machine whirring meant that in the first 3 minutes, I didn't hear anything. For such a limited experience, a good one. It also reminded me a lot of Kalevi Aho.

Gorgon is the loudest Rouse I have encountered yet, 16 minutes of nonstop pounding, blamming, wailing, and air-raiding. Iscariot is an "old friend," one I've heard several times on the BIS recording, though in this context it suffers a bit as a short encore after two big pieces that absolutely dominate one's attention.

I've heard multiple Rouse performances including No. 1 with Christoph Eschenbach/Houston Symphony live.  It was fantastic.  I don't know why you would say "...this would be a difficult piece to experience live, because it requires intense focus but does not reward it too frequently."  Not at all.  It was very well received and full of immediacy.  Also quotes of Allan Pettersson. 

Thanks! I guess also one's ears are better prepared for sudden dynamic changes in live concert than over headphones. I haven't seen No. 1 live but have seen some of his other stuff live, including the world premiere of No. 5 (on a previous page in this thread).

[Brian]

Karolju has one of the weirdest backstories of any classical work I've ever encountered. Rouse wanted to write a cycle of festive Christmas carols, so he started without a commission or a text. Then, when the commission came, instead of retrofitting real texts to the music, he simply made up texts in a variety of languages. The texts don't make any sense whatsoever, because they're a mix of Christmas greetings and random words Rouse thought sounded good. They're intended for non-speakers of the language to hear and think, "that sounds like it's about Christmas," even though they're not!

The music is totally lovely, festive, charming, with lots of resonant brass, sincere good humor, and joyous melody. There are glancing quotes of previous Christmas works too (like the Czech movement quoting the melody that goes with "don we now our gay apparel"). But ultimately the sincerity and meaning of it is open for question. In a way, Karolju offers uncomfortable metaphorical readings about the [choose your preferred noun:] postmodernism, irony, or superficiality of today's society: the way that we can create a cheery Christmas work with loads of singing, even though the singing means nothing whatsoever.

Then again, I've listened to a lot of Christmas songs where I can understand the words. And the words often stink. With the abundant musical charm, this is better than "Wonderful Christmastime," "Baby It's Cold Outside," or "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer"!

The coupling is an excerpt of fourteen of Lutoslawski's Twenty Polish Christmas Carols. The cuts - 11 minutes' worth, on a disc that had 13 minutes of room for more tracks - are a true pity. But we have the Antoni Wit recording on Naxos, at least, and I listen to that disc every holiday season. Rodrigo's short Retablo de Navidad rounds things out.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I found out that Rouse wrote an Organ Concerto. I hope it'll be recorded - all I could find was the finale, on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxV1T3IrJsM

[AnotherSpin]

Tried listening Christopher Rouse for the first time. An album with a clarinet concerto and the first symphony. Haven't found much to latch on to yet. Relaxed a bit on the Wagnerian motifs in the symphony.

[AnotherSpin]

Another Rouse album, with the 3rd and 4th Symphonies. It's getting better, maybe I'm getting acclimated to it. The Siegfrieds Trauermusik quote at the end of the 4th is pretty amusing.

[relm1]

I found out that Rouse wrote an Organ Concerto. I hope it'll be recorded - all I could find was the finale, on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxV1T3IrJsM

I found out that Rouse wrote an Organ Concerto. I hope it'll be recorded - all I could find was the finale, on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxV1T3IrJsM

I heard it performed; it was fantastic! Dark, menacing and powerful!  Definitely hope it gets a good recording.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I heard it performed; it was fantastic! Dark, menacing and powerful!  Definitely hope it gets a good recording.

He's been a consistently good concerto composer. Where'd you hear it, BTW?

[relm1]

He's been a consistently good concerto composer. Where'd you hear it, BTW?

I was at this concert.  I can't remember what else was on the program but it was a great program I recall but the Rouse was especially a thrill.

https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/2555/organ-concerto-west-coast-premiere-la-phil-co-commission

I believe I had the full concerto from a broadcast too.  Rouse had a very long history with LA Phil so I saw several of his works premiered there including the Requiem where I was on the first row right next to the organ and chorus!  I could read their parts.  I'm surprised that one hasn't been released as far as I know but it was a 90 minute massive choral orchestral work and very loud!

[Symphonic Addict]

I found out this release is available already on YouTube, never saw any reference before.



Three concertos:

Heimdall's Trumpet
Oboe Concerto
Bassoon Concerto


And this one including his Organ Concerto is to be released in September or October I guess:



Looks like Rouse was doing what Aho does currently: composing concertos for each instrument.

[Brian]

The idea of a Rouse organ concerto is thrilling. If it doesn't blow out my eardrums, I'll be disappointed! 

[foxandpeng]

I found out this release is available already on YouTube, never saw any reference before.



Three concertos:

Heimdall's Trumpet
Oboe Concerto
Bassoon Concerto

Ah, thanks for this. Really looking forward to listening to this later this evening ☺️

[foxandpeng]

Three concertos:

Heimdall's Trumpet
Oboe Concerto
Bassoon Concerto

This is very worthwhile - particularly the bassoon and oboe concertos Now on my third listen 🙂

[Symphonic Addict]

This is very worthwhile - particularly the bassoon and oboe concertos Now on my third listen 🙂

Looks like it's a fantastic CD. Thanks for the heads up.

[Symphonic Addict]

To be released on August 23rd.