Air - Works for Recorder and Guitar / Michala Petri, Lars Hannibal (2008)

With their music, these two artists have reached a maturity and technical superiority that inevitably shift the focus. Into to room, into the hall. And this to a degree where the contact with their audience becomes almost tangible. They capture the atmosphere in such a way that encourages audiences to discover that a concert with Michala Petri and Lars Hannibal is an exceptional experience that strikes the chords of the heart.
Whereas Michala Petri has a long standing as one of the world’s most supreme instrumentalists, Lars Hannibal’s wide experience from various ensembles enables him to create both harmony and contrast. Together, they form a synthesis that attracts attention worldwide.

Michala Petri

Michala Petri is the leading player of instruments of the recorder family. Her repertoire spans works from the Baroque, Classicism, Romanticism and extends into contemporary music. And it is precisely this versatility that lies behind her special appeal as an artist: Michala Petri has in many ways expanded - indeed broken down - the boundaries of her instrument family. In her hands the recorder is not a 'tributary' to the great river of 'important' instruments, but itself becomes a major instrument. From the beginning of her career she has been a leading figure in the commissioning of works from composers, more than a hundred works have been written for Michala Petri by composers such as Malcolm Arnold, Vagn Holmboe, Per Nørgaard, Daniel Börtz, Gordon Jacob - the list is constantly growing.

Alongside her interest in contemporary music, Michala Petri continued to make and play transcriptions of music from the Baroque to the Romantics long before it became known that in Classicism and the Baroque absolutely original works for the recorder could be found. "This justifies my stubbornness and my instinct for the possibilities of the instrument," says Michala Petri, and stresses that in her transcriptions she has carefully selected pieces that suit the nature of her instrument.

In keeping with her ambition to emancipate the recorder and its repertoire from restrictive views of its proper place in the world of the Baroque, Michala Petri has always liked to play with ensembles and instrumentalists whose primary interest is not Baroque music, such as Claudio Abbado, Heinz Holliger, Gidon Kremer, Christopher Hogwood, Henryk Szeryng, Pinchas Zukerman, Keith Jarrett and many others. The sound of music is Michala Petri's prime concern: "Music is the important thing, not the instrument - for me it happens to be the recorder. My aim is the best possible appropriate expression of the music. With that in mind, obviously I also have to consider other things - the concert hall, the audience and of course the people I play with." This modesty - coupled with her firmness, as far as musical priorities are concerned - permits Michala Petri to play as easily with early music ensembles such as Musica Antiqua Cologne.

So that her instrument, the recorder in its various manifestations, could assert itself and make an impact acoustically, Michala Petri's has always been interested in extending its limited dynamic potential. With that in mind she has actively collaborated with instrument-makers, and in recent years has applied her experience to the development of a new type of flute that incorporates her ideas. "With this instrument, which has more dynamics and compass, I can give better expression to the music of Romanticism with more freedom and naturalness in my expressive range", thinks Michala Petri.

The fact that Michala Petri knows no technical limitations naturally stimulates her delight in musical experimentation. It is not only in the area of classical music - with orchestras, in chamber music ensembles and in duets with Lars Hannibal - that the sparks fly: a collaboration with Keith Jarrett kindled an interest in jazz - today she plays with among others Palle Mikkelborg - and in the music of other cultures. Her great fascination in this respect is China, and working with one of the greatest virtuosos on the xiao (bamboo flute), Chen Yue, and one of the great players of the pipa (lute) from far Cathay (Yan Jiang), as well as Lars Hannibal, she is experimenting with intercultural cooperation and - no surprise here - has already commissioned works from Chinese as well as European composers.



Lars Hannibal

When guitarist and lute player Lars Hannibal began playing at 15 years old, in 1966, it was the folk/rock guitar with inspiration from Bob Dylan and The Beatles. Some years later, a recording by Andres Segovia, playing the Gavotte from Bach`s E-Major Partita for violin solo, impressed him so much, that he decided to start playing the Classical guitar.

In 1972 Lars Hannibal started his guitar studies at the Conservatory in his hometown Århus, and from 1977-80 he continued in The Hague, studying the lute by Toyohiko Satoh. Even as guitar professor Konrad Ragossnig from Basel urged him to aim at a solo career, Lars Hannibal decided to concentrate on Chamber music. In the interplay with other musicians he found his musical identity.

Immediately after finishing his studies in Århus and The Hague, Lars Hannibal formed Duo Concertante with violinist Kim Sjøgren, and as such in the period 1980 to 1994 toured in Denmark, Germany, France, Spain and UK, giving more that a thousand concerts and recording 10 CDs for EMI. From the beginning, they created a concert concept where stories, information, anecdotes and even jokes and humour were an integrated part of the performance, which often included music from different genres.

The openness of these other genres was influential in forming Birth of a Quartet in 1988 with Palle Mikkeborg and Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen. Many Danish composers wrote for this fruitful musical partnership Duo Concertante during the period.

Lars Hannibal first met recorder player Michala Petri in 1991, and a year later they married and started playing as a duo, as early as their honeymoon in Spain during the summer of 1992. Since then, they have toured the world and during the numerous concerts established a musical comprehension that is seldom heard.

The duo Petri/Hannibal released on RCA/BMG their first cd “Souvenir” in 1994, and in 1997 “Air” followed. The release “Kreisler Inspirations” from 2001 received the German Schalplattenpreis ECHO in the category chamber music. Their recording of music by Danish composer Thomas Koppel “Los Angeles Street Concerto” was awarded Best Classical CD 2006 in Denmark.

In late 2006, Michala Petri and Lars Hannibal launched their own recording company OUR Recordings. On this label they release music where at least one of them is performing, and the first release was the duo cd “Siesta”.

Since 2004 Lars Hannibal has done a lot of work with Chinese music and musicians, and the concept for all this work is called Dialog - East meets West. The first recording in this artistic commitment was “Spirits-East meets West” from 2007 with Chinese Xiao player Chen Yue. The same year he formed an ensemble with Chen Yue, Michala Petri and Pipa player Yan Jiang called Quartet-East meets West. During Quartet concerts, new compositions by Chinese and European composers are played along, with Chinese and European Classical music, and creates a new exiting world of sound with these similar instruments from East and West.




Tracklisting:

01. Gymnopedie No.1 - |3:03|
02. Five Lyric Pieces - |2:25|
03. Five Lyric Pieces - |1:38|
04. Five Lyric Pieces - |1:15|
05. Five Lyric Pieces - |2:01|
06. Five Lyric Pieces - |2:00|
07. Dance of the Blessed Spirits & Air - |5:45|
08. Variations on 'Gestern Abend war Velter Michel da' - |5:47|
09. Gymnopedie No.3 - |2:06|
10. The Bee, Op. 13 No.9 - |1:51|
11. Air from Suite in D, BWV 1068 'Air on the G String' - |4:51|
12. Sonata in G Minor/g-moll/sol mineur 'Le Trille du diable' - |3:41|
13. Sonata in G Minor/g-moll/sol mineur 'Le Trille du diable' - |2:24|
14. Sonata in G Minor/g-moll/sol mineur 'Le Trille du diable' - |4:01|
15. Sonata in G Minor/g-moll/sol mineur 'Le Trille du diable' - |7:07|
16. The Folg is Lifting - |3:38|
17. Two Sonatinas, WoO 43a - |3:13|
18. Two Sonatinas, WoO 44a - |2:39|
19. Tambourin - |1:23|
20. Gymnopedie No.2 - |2:17|
21. Sonata in F/F-dur/fa majeur, BWV 1033 - |1:30|
22. Sonata in F/F-dur/fa majeur, BWV 1033 - |2:21|
23. Sonata in F/F-dur/fa majeur, BWV 1033 - |1:34|
24. Sonata in F/F-dur/fa majeur, BWV 1033 - |2:35|



Download:
hotfile | fileserve

No mirror, please!