Bassoon with a View

Description: 
Not the soundtrack for an E.M. Forster book.
Composers: 
William Davis
Christopher Weait
Graham Waterhouse
Efrem J. Podgaits
Drew Krause
Boguslaw Schaffer
Performers: 
William Davis
Jolene Davis
Christopher Weait
Henry Skolnick
Jose Lopez
Ronald Klimko
Catherine Allen
Doug Spaniol
Charles Lipp
Catalog Number: 
#520
Genre: 
new classical
electronic
Collection: 
bassoon
Location: 

Urbana, IL

Release Date: 
Jan 1, 1998
Liner Notes: 
View
Digital Only
One Sheet: 

Bassoon with a View: Late 20th Bassoon Music, an extraordinary collaboration featuring six of America's top bassoonists. Bringing together a selection of recent solo art music, this CD demonstrates the versatility and expressive potential of this oft-overlooked wind instrument. The performances are not only musical but also technical tours de force, occasionally employing harmonics, glissandi, multiphonics, microtones, fluttertonguing, and circular breathing. Some works are solo, others are accompanied by piano or electronic tape. In some cases the composers are themselves the performers and all pieces appear here for the first time on CD. 

The composers represented are from the U.S., England, Poland, and Russia. Their works are central to the studies of any double reed students and will amply reward the adventurous listener of chamber music. 

This project is a labor of love by the performers, who have pooled their talents to record their favorite new works: William Davis is on the faculty at the University of Georgia, Christopher Weait at Ohio State, Graham Waterhouse (son of noted bassoonist William Waterhouse) works in Munich, Ronald Klimko is an editor for International Double Reed Society publications and teaches at the University of Idaho, Doug Spaniol teaches at Butler University, and Charles Lipp teaches in Illinois, where several of the bassoonists developed their interests in new music. 

Reviews: 

DOUBLE REED

"... a milestone in recordings of bassoon music. Several factors combine to make this disc unique: besides bringing together several new and interesting pieces for the bassoon and contrabassoon, it includes composers as performers, it is recorded by a group of bassoonists from across the United States and from various corners of the profession, and the music represents a number of compositional styles. All of this leads us to ask one question: why hasn't this been done before, many times over? The collection of talent here, both in composition and performance, is quite impressive. ... Congratulations to all involved with this most welcome and logical solution to the problem of creating and promoting new music for the bassoon." - Jeffrey Lyman

AMAZON

If you like Bassoons, this is great, especially the contrabasson on Aztec Ceremonies. It takes a very unique combination of life experiences and technique to produce such tone and music. Who are these people? - Ed Neu