Over het album
What a fantastic new album! Colourful arrangements, thrilling, breathtaking improvisations, fascinating rhythms. You showed me another musical world and challenged all of us when we played “Fifth Grade” and “Passacaglia” together in Gothenburg for The Stena Foundation’s 25th anniversary gala in 2021. But what a revelation it was for me to listen to your Concerto for English Horn and Contrabass for the first time: it felt like you had put the story of a whole life into music. I hear a lot of dramatic and loving aspects but also very lonesome dialogue in your composition. Especially these lonesome parts where harmony and rhythm start to completely disappear – when the dialogue turns into a monologue – those are my favourite moments. Time stands still, my thoughts begin to travel to new places...
Thank you, Lars, and thank you, Grégory Privat and also the great Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, for opening my eyes to wonderful new horizons.
Anja Bihlmaier - German conductor
To me, as a classical musician, it was an amazing experience, when in 2018 together with Lars, the Liberetto group and the “INSO-Lviv” Symphony Orchestra we performed the programme of this recording for the first time in concert. I am totally inspired by the mastery of instrumentation in all of the pieces, especially in the approach to the classical form of the double concerto. With this piece a new genre has been created, combining the best classical mtraditions with jazz. I think the theme of this CD could be “combining”: styles, epoques, traditions and all of us through music, especially in such difficult times. Today, the piece titled “Lviv” is dedicated to this beautiful city and helps us all to recall not only the peaceful times, but also shines like a warm light at the end of a tunnel. We will be back there one day, we will meet again during Leopolis Jazz Fest. And for now, we can be reunited in our imaginations, through the genius of Lars’s music.
Yaroslav Shemet - Ukrainian conductor and Artistic Director of the Silesian Philharmonic
