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As An Unperfect Actor – Nine Shakespeare Sonnets

Birgit Minichmayr

As An Unperfect Actor – Nine Shakespeare Sonnets

Format: CD
Label: ACT music
UPC: 0614427993120
Catnr: ACT 99312
Release date: 28 May 2021
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1 CD
Buy at PlatoMania
 
Label
ACT music
UPC
0614427993120
Catalogue number
ACT 99312
Release date
28 May 2021
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

Birgit Minichmayr captures the imagination and holds centre-stage on “As An Unperfect Actor – Nine Sonnets by William Shakespeare”. This won’t come as a surprise to people in the German-speaking world, where the Austrian actor is well-known from countless appearances on TV and a substantial filmography. Perhaps equally unsurprising is the deep experience she can bring to Shakespeare: as an ensemble member of the Burgtheater company in Vienna, she has repeatedly lived out the searingly dramatic lives of the Bard’s characters, notably the daemonic anger of Lady Macbeth, the sadness of Ophelia, and even the uncomfortable truths of the Fool in King Lear.

What might be more of a surprise, however, is the exhilarating musicality she shows on this, her first complete album as a vocalist. One could have predicted the crystal clarity, meaning and intent in her words – the desolation in her voice in “the very birds are mute...the leaves look pale” in Sonnet 97, for example. And yet there is more, much more, not least Minichmayr’s uncannily natural instinct to find artful and felicitous ways to shape musical phrases.

Composer/ pianist Bernd Lhotzky has provided her with a wonderful array of musical contexts. As Minichmayr says: “He got so deep into the meaning of each sonnet, his music made it different every time. And we talked a lot about the colour, the meaning of each poem.” The opening track, “Mistress Mine”, Sonnet 130 is a masterfully deft piece of gender-fluid irony. In the poem, a man is describing possibly the ugliest woman he has ever seen – while also declaring that she is the one he loves. Lhotzky gives us an acerbic version in that most male-led of dances, the tango, complete with bandoneon, in which the words are sung by...a woman. Minichmayr then gives a masterclass in how to end a song as she hits, holds and nails the words “false compare” with triumphant fearlessness.

Throughout the course of the album, we are magically transported to new musical and emotional places. As Minichmayr says: “Through singing, through just doing it, I was able to find deep love, or deep sadness. I was really touched by it.” We are straight into the elegiac world of “Sin Of Self-Love”, or into world-weariness, tinged with an unmistakable irritation, of “Tired With All These”. And then, unforgettably, we land in the major-key contentment of “Mine Eye Hath Played The Painter”.

One of the secrets to this album’s success is Lhotzky’s wish to find melodies which have a certain ease and straightforwardness about them. He says that he approaches all music – whether he is listening to it or writing it – with one simple and direct question: “What story is this telling me?” Lhotzky is known for his work in the field of early jazz, but the range here is far broader, with allusions to examples of fine songwriting: Brassens, Robert Plant, James Taylor...

The collaboration between Minichmayr and Lhotzky had a very propitious start and has gone from strength to strength. They were invited to work together on a Dorothy Parker project in the Austrian spa town of Bad Schallerbach in the summer of 2019. Minichmayr had been booked to do readings, but was also keen to sing...Cole Porter’s “Just One of Those Things,” with its reference to Dorothy Parker in the first line. That worked out so well, it led Lhotzky to suggest a Shakespeare project to her which he had already embarked upon – it has been briefly glimpsed already on ACT, on one track of “Winter at Schloss Elmau”.

The instrumentalists are a Munich based group named Quadro Nuevo, with Philipp Schiepek’s contribution a stand-out. As Lhotzky says: “He’s a phenomenal guitarist, and really young. With his acoustic guitar he brings us back to the origins, to Dowland's songs with lute. And the fact that he also plays electric jazz guitar provides a connecting link across the centuries.” And then there is bassist D.D. Lowka’s large-scale Charlie Haden-ish bass sound. “D.D. and Philipp are a dream team,” says Lhotzky. And reedsman Mulo Francel brings a whole range of colours from luscious contrabass clarinet to fluent jazz soloing on saxophones. Accordionist Andreas Hinterseher? “He’s just a phenomenon,” says Lhotzky, “he hardly said a thing in the sessions, but every take was perfect.” Bernd Lhotzky's piano playing, for example as he sets the scene for "Let not to the marriage" has a deliciously understated and laid-back eloquence and elegance.

Bernd Lhotzky’s kaleidoscopic musical vision and Birgit Minichmayr’s instinct for mood-setting have combined triumphantly in “As An Unperfect Actor”. In this “perfect ceremony of love’s rite,” they never seem to run out of joyous surprises for the listener.

Artist(s)

Mulo Francel (tenor saxophone)

Many people who have never heard the name of Mulo Francel will nonetheless be aware of his playing, because the saxophonist is one of the founder members of Germany's most successful world music group Quadro Nuevo, which has been in existence since 1996. For Francel, this band provides the ideal means to channel any need he might have for travel, and also to give musical expression to his innate curiosity about other cultures. Quadro Nuevo brings him into contact with musicians, myths and melodies from all over the world, and these encounters happen “in the spirit of jazz”: freely, spontaneously and non- judgementally. That said, Francel’s musical roots are unquestionably in jazz. His legacy from a father who died too...
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Many people who have never heard the name of Mulo Francel will nonetheless be aware of his playing, because the saxophonist is one of the founder members of Germany's most successful world music group Quadro Nuevo, which has been in existence since 1996. For Francel, this band provides the ideal means to channel any need he might have for travel, and also to give musical expression to his innate curiosity about other cultures. Quadro Nuevo brings him into contact with musicians, myths and melodies from all over the world, and these encounters happen “in the spirit of jazz”: freely, spontaneously and non- judgementally. That said, Francel’s musical roots are unquestionably in jazz. His legacy from a father who died too soon was a collection of jazz records, which became the door to a new world for the young Mulo. At the age of 16, he saved up his own money and bought a saxophone. His studies in Linz, Munich and New York prepared him for the wider world. Alongside his allegiance to Quadro Nuevo, he has always stayed true to jazz, from his early soul band Mind Games, through the trio Die Abenteurer (the adventurers), to a jazz quartet, with whom he recorded the album “Escape” five years ago. Most recently he has been part of Echoes of Swing, with Pete York, Shannon Barnett and Henning Gailing, who made a “Tribute to Bix Beiderbecke” in the “Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic” series, which was issued as a double CD on the ACT label.

“Mocca Swing” marks a return to that abiding first love

– of jazz. And yet his debut album in his own name on ACT is much more than that. “It has been such a luxury. A wonderful escapade, I've been able to go the whole way.” says Francel. What has emerged is a double album which is a substantial piece of work. The first of the two CDs presents “Mulo Francel & Friends”, i.e. his new quartet. As in Quadro Nuevo, the combination of musicians with such different stylistic origins produces kaleidoscopic variety – and excitement. Francel himself sets the tone with his melodic playing, staying close to mainstream jazz, (on two tracks he plays the C-Melody saxophone, widely used in early jazz), but he also gives his excellent accompanists full rein: Baku-born pianist David Gazarov, who possesses an extraordinary technique – at the intersection of classical music and jazz – and who is a also walking encyclopedia of all jazz styles; bassist Sven Faller, known for his work with Le Bang Bang and Trio Elf – he studied in New York, and broadened out his horizons by playing on the scene there; and percussionist Robert Kainar, a pivotal figure on the Austrian jazz scene.

In addition to three compositions by Francel himself,

his colleagues were also able to contribute: Faller’s “ Pixinguinha” pays homage to Brazilian music, and Gazarov’s adaptation of Chopins Etude Op. 10, No. 6 appears as “Retrospective Of A Broken Man”.

On the second CD, they are joined by the Munich Radio Orchestra and companions from various points in Francel’s musical life. “Our point of departure is the pieces I have felt closest to in recent years. The idea was to use all of the possibilities offered by a large ensemble to cast new light on them,” Francel explains. His colleagues from Quadro Nuevo, Andreas Hinterseher on bandoneon und accordion, Chris Gall at the piano, Evelyn Huber on harp, and D.D. Lowka on bass join him on three tracks. Compositions from the repertoire they have shared together, such as “Taquito Militar” – a tango which Francel discovered on a journey to Buenos Aires, and adapted – are transformed from chamber music into something orchestral and hymnic, but also jazzy. The same happens to “Flying Carpet”, the title track of a Quadro Nuevo album, which oscillates between western and eastern influences. This track grew out of the work – and a journey together to Egypt – which Francel and Quadro Nuevo did with the band Cairo Steps. Here percussionist Max Klaas from Cairo Steps ensures that the rhythms are authntic. Erroll Garner's “Misty”, which is one of Francel's favourite jazz standards, gains extravagant new colours through adding the Spanish guitar sounds of his good friends Jan Pascal and Alexander Kilian who form the flamenco duo Café del Mundo. And finally Francel takes compositions by friends such as the guitarist Paulo Morello (“Robert’s Waltz”) and the flautist Philipp Sterzer (“Die Abenteurer”/ the adventurers), and also uses experienced arrangers such as the New York-based latin specialist Daniel Freiberg, the young innovative big band writer Leonhard Kuhn from Munich, and the Dutch early jazz specialist Menno Daams.


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Philipp Schiepek (guitar)

“An insightful and versatile guitarist” (All About Jazz), “he has found a sound that is his own – and is always imbued with both beauty and excitement” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). Philipp Schiepek has started to receive the media attention he deserves. Born in Dinkelsbühl in Southern Germany in 1994, Schiepek first played piano and accordion before taking up the guitar at the age of 12. He has that most important attribute of a musician, his own individual voice. The word about quite how good he is started to get around fast: he had only just completed his studies at the conservatoires in Würzburg and Munich when he played with bands such as Mulo Francel’s, and also alongside internationally known artists like...
more
“An insightful and versatile guitarist” (All About Jazz), “he has found a sound that is his own – and is always imbued with both beauty and excitement” (Süddeutsche Zeitung). Philipp Schiepek has started to receive the media attention he deserves. Born in Dinkelsbühl in Southern Germany in 1994, Schiepek first played piano and accordion before taking up the guitar at the age of 12. He has that most important attribute of a musician, his own individual voice. The word about quite how good he is started to get around fast: he had only just completed his studies at the conservatoires in Würzburg and Munich when he played with bands such as Mulo Francel’s, and also alongside internationally known artists like Richie Beirach and Klaus Doldinger. In early 2020, he won the BMW Welt Young Artist Jazz Award. With “Cathedral” he now makes his debut on ACT. Alongside him is pianist Walter Lang. Originally from the Stuttgart region and based in Munich, Lang, 59, has been called “the poet”, “the romantic” among German jazz pianists. He grew up surrounded by classical music, folk music and the Beatles. Chance led him to Berklee College of Music in Boston, and into jazz. The constants with Lang are a love of melody and a remarkable economy of expression, and it is a shared instinct for the power of simple melodies which brings the two musicians together on “Cathedral”. They complement each other ideally, with Lang’s delicate touch and the range of his pianism enhanced by Schiepek’s refined technique and frequent ornamentation, evoking the world of the Spanish classical guitar.

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D.D. Lowka (double bass)

Composer(s)

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