(Julia Bartha, piano; Angelika Siman, harp; Thomas Schindle, vibes; Holger Michalski, doublebass)
Stockfisch Records is a German audiophile label specializing in European and American guitarists, but they have also released some projects outside of the mainstream – for example, the American female sax quintet The Tiptons.
BCQ puts out a sound which will catch the ears of many collectors and listeners. The four classical players came together for an off-the-beaten-path live concert. The idea was to select and arrange music which would reflect the tastes and expertise of the four ensemble members – playing piano, harp, vibes and bass. It went so well that the BCQ is now a going ensemble and this is their first disc combining their classical roots with elements of jazz.
Some of the 15 tracks are piano-based, with ornamental contributions from the other three players, while some feature more of the harp or vibes. The familiar Toccata from one of Prokofiev’s piano sonatas starts things off at a good clip. It is followed by five of Chick Corea’s Children’s Songs. Two Piazzolla selections employ more equal use of all the instruments. There is a three-movement jazz suite by Richard Michael which is something in the line of Claude Bolling’s suites, and the program ends with the uptempo Chick Corea tune La Fiesta.
The mixing and spatialization of the four players is very creative. They are not just arrayed across the frontal soundstage with ambience on the surround channels. Sometimes portions of the piano are heard from one of the surrounds, similar to the Moving Real Surround of Tacet’s SACDs. It is clearly a performance creatively intended to be listening to in surround. BCQ strikes me as another in a series of very successful classical crossover efforts that have graced disc players in the last year or two. If this continues, perhaps more of the younger generation will be interesting to take up the classical music banner, and also we won’t have to listen to crossover albums of opera divas attempting to sing pop tunes.
TrackList: Toccata; Children’s Songs 19, 12, 16, 17, 18; Tanti Anni Prima; Music 4-4; Goodbye My Love; Kicho; JazzSuite: Latin, Blues, Boogie; Hinter dem Fenster; La Fiesta.
– John Sunier
