Goebbels, Heiner: The Italian Concerto

This gentleman is a well respected pianist, composer and theater director who has received many awards in his artistic career. Heiner Goebbels is not your typical piano player who plays what Bach or Brahms and the likes have composed, far from it. For one thing, he plays also percussions. Actually, he plays both at the same time. On the cover, you see him pulling an orange-red string off his Steinway. Inside the booklet, you have some cymbals placed into his piano. Does this seem strange to you? Well it should and the same goes for the music to be heard on this release.

This is not your uncle's classical album, unless the said uncle grew up listening to Frank Zappa! The overall feel here is modern and experimental, as well as pleasant to the ears. I would say that some sort of Zappa meets Dave Stewart feel is present on this release. The Grand Wazoo / Lumpy Gravy and Uncle Meat comes to mind in quite a few places and the piano playing could have also fit very well in Egg's discography. Sometimes ambient, sometimes dark or comical, then orchestral or multi-ethnic, in short this album is pretty varied. On the other hand, I could have done without the closing track, "So That Blood Dropped to the Earth", where a mezzo-soprano has been piercing my ear drums with her big mouth. This is similar to what those power metal "male" vocalists have been doing with their unbearable high pitches and falsettos. On the brighter side, "Die Faust Im Wappen" is a very cool and comical piece with a crazy trombone performance that bears a funny/cartoonesque edge. On "Ou Bien Sunyatta", two Senegalese musicians, singer Sira Djebate and kora (21 string bush harp) player Boubakar Djebate bring a contrasting, but fitting harmony to the orchestral ensemble.

The sum up: The Italian Concerto might not be readily accessible for a large number of music fans and this is not something to put on your player no matter the time of the day, yet still it remains a pleasant and adventurous album to play once and a while.

Track listing:
1 – The Italian Concerto / Writing II
2 – Ou Bien Sunyatta
3 – Die Faust Im Wappen
4 – So That Blood Dropped to the Earth

Added: February 10th 2010
Reviewer: Denis Brunelle
Score:
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Language: english

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