Here’s a really good classical music press release. Faithful
readers will remember how exasperated I’ve been at bad ones (and, sadly, the
vast majority of classical music press releases I see are really bad).
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>SONY CLASSICAL PRESENTS THE ACCLAIMED
COMPOSER/INSTRUMENTALIST EDGAR MEYER
IN COLLABORATION WITH PERHAPS
HIS MOST PROVOCATIVE PARTNER YET – HIMSELF
style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'>CDS IN STORES TUESDAY, APRIL 25, 2006
Three-time Grammy Award winner
Edgar Meyer has won remarkable acclaim both for the music he has written and
for an inexhaustible variety of recordings and live performances with everyone
from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to Garth Brooks, James Taylor,
The Chieftains and Yo-Yo Ma, but his latest Sony Classical recording features
what is perhaps his most demanding collaboration yet – with himself. Aptly
titled Edgar Meyer, the recording
presents the double bass virtuoso and composer performing 14 all-new
instrumental pieces he has created for himself to perform, on an array of
instruments, through the magic of multi-track recording. Recorded in the music
room he built in his
home, Edgar Meyer will be released on Tuesday, April 25, 2006.
Hailed by The New Yorker as
"the most remarkable virtuoso in the relatively unchronicled history of
his instrument [the double bass]," Meyer plays every one of the
instruments on the new recording – bass, mandolin, guitar, piano, dobro, banjo
and gamba. He says that the album he produced makes him happiest in the way he
was able to realize the voice of the bass.
"It was immensely pleasurable
spending time at home making music," Meyer says. "When you are
dealing with an unusual voice such as the double bass, you usually have to
clear the decks for it to work. You can’t just put down some drums and some
keyboards, and then put a bass on top of it. You really have to move stuff out
of the way. I hate to ask that of people I work with, because they’re so
accomplished. So it’s nice actually not being worried about asking anybody for
anything, to be able to build a whole record around the voice of the bass
without feeling self-conscious about it…I feel it’s the happiest I’ve been with
the voice of the instrument overall."
Each of the 14 tracks on
style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Edgar Meyer evolved in a process in
which composing, playing, recording and editing were fused and did not have to
happen in a particular order, at a particular time. Meyer calls it a type of
music-making "I couldn’t have composed or planned." Some pieces are
heavily composed, others developed as they were built, voice by voice. He notes
that the first thing he recorded – a nine-minute piano improvisation – wound
up, unchanged, as the foundation for one of the tracks, with other instrumental
voices added. Just as the recording process was unpredictable, so was the music
itself, which Edgar uniquely wove with classical, jazz and bluegrass threads.\
In addition to his virtuosity on
the double bass, Meyer is a fine pianist, but working with the other
instruments – banjo, mandolin, dobro, guitar – was a bit of an adventure.
"I have stood next to a lot of my favorite players on these instruments
for 20 years, so even though I couldn’t do what they do, I had an idea of what
those instruments could do, and what a good sound on those instruments
is," he says. "So I knew what I was going for, and the trick was to
find what suited my ability level for each instrument. That meant that each
part is equally difficult. Whether it’s a super-simple mandolin part or a very
complicated bass part, I had about the same degree of difficulty playing each."
Edgar Meyer is an exclusive Sony
Classical artist, and his most recent recording for the label is Music for Two,
his acclaimed collaboration with his longtime friend and musical colleague Bela
Fleck. The two also collaborated on the Grammy-winning Perpetual Motion, also released on Sony Classical. Meyer’s
catalogue of recordings includes a solo recording of unaccompanied Bach, a
recording of the first Concerto for Double Bass and of his own Concerto for
Double Bass and Cello with Yo-Yo Ma, and original collaborations with such
musicians as Joshua Bell, Mark O’Connor, Mike Marshall and Sam Bush, as well as
his work in the traditional classical rule as composer, including Hilary Hahn’s
recording of his Violin Concerto.
The album’s pretty nice, too.
And now someone’s going to say that this was too easy, that
it’s easy to write an engaging press release for a project like this. As
opposed, let’s say, to a new recording of the last three Beethoven piano
sonatas.
To which I reply: Isn’t there something vivid and personal
going on in those Beethoven performances? Something, that is, that could be
turned into a vivid press release. And if something personal isn’t going on,
why record the performances?


Recent Comments
Greg Sandow on Good news from Toronto
Thanks! It's wonderful to have this corroboration. I'm sure Peter Oundjian is a crucial part of the Symphony's success.Greg Sandow on Philharmonic clarification
Christina, when the Philharmonic played in Lewisohn Stadium, they didn't have any marketing department. Or any corporate sponsors. Those things...D Shapiro on Good news from Toronto
As a subscriber, and a parent of a 29-year-old, I can provide a little insight. My daughter is fairly typical...Christina Jensen on Philharmonic clarification
If that is true, it's unlikely any publicists were involved, but rather marketing departments and corporate sponsorship folks. http://nyphil.org/support/corporate_benefits.cfmJon Silpayamanant on Good news from Toronto
Some classical music institutions attract a young audience by lowering ticket prices, but then they need funding to offset the...