| Review by wolf359 November 1, 2009 (4 of 4 found this review helpful)
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I had never heard of Johan Bridger until I came across a copy of this in my local libary of all places. Realising that it was an SACD I auditioned the copy I borrowed. Firstly the music on the disc is very recent the earliest work was composed as far back as 1977 the most recent 2004!!!
The first track entitled Velocities was composed by the American Joseph Schwantner it is a short piece (7.40) which is a vibraphone work and is as it name implies a rapidly changing and evolving work which shows Bridgers vibraphone dexterity the first two themes of the work being tied up with a brief but powerful ending.
Track two was composed by Tobias Brostom and was premiered in 2002 entitled Scene for vibraphone it features apart from the aforsaid vibraphone ,cymbal,Java gongs,wind chimes and other assorted percussion sounds which are played with elan. It is again a relatively short benign piece of
music
Track three is Frum a drum song by Masson and is frankly one of my favourites on the album. If I had heard this as a teenager it would have made me want to take up the drums just to annoy the neighbours It is not all drums though there some bongos? and other bits and pieces.
Tracks 4 to 7 are an extended work written for the Marimaba called Variations on Lost Love by the American composer Maslanka. It is in my opinion a lyrical work
The 8th track is by composer Stefan Storm and is called Gloria who wrote it as a work for solo Marimba and dedicated it to Bridger it is quiet and calming
Last two tracks comprise the longest work entitled Arena,Percussion concerto No 1(Brostrom) split again by into two movements it opens with an aggressive display of percussion which gradually dissolves into a duet between the orchestral percussion and a timpani all of this leads into the last track which is an amazing climax of the percussionists art.
I initially said that I borrowed this from the local music libary but was so impressed that I purchased from Amazon after the first hearing before it went OOP
If you are into modern composers and/or percussion this is an excellent introduction. The recording is first rate and makes good use of SACD capabilities. The disc is best heard in my opinion in Multichannel although the stereo layer is good. I did not bother with the RBCD layer.
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