TORONTO, Canada (Sympho Inc/ www.sympho.ca) -
Gershwin For Trumpet (8.554302), the CD of appealing arrangements, was released on Naxos last month. Most popular songs, which define an era and popularized the stage and screen musicals of the 1930's, are on this recording arranged by
Peter Breiner and Juraj Bartos. Arrangements for trumpet and piano were recorded in the
Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto, Canada in June 1996.
"In some aspect, it was a friendly get-together, we were playing Gershwin's songs and arrangements were created along the way" says Breiner, the Toronto-based composer, conductor, arranger and pianist.
Peter Breiner is one of the world's most recorded musicians, with almost 100 CDs over the last 10 years; his most recent recording and his latest composition, Songs and Dances from the Silk Road, Suite for Violin and Orchestra, was released on Naxos/Marco Polo in November 2003 and received a FIVE-star rating by CBC's Rick Phillips in his February 2004 broadcast of Sound Advice. La Scena Musicale rated the CD as "a must".
In 2003, Breiner premiered his arrangements of J. S. Bach's music Come Bach to Me at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Select works of J. S. Bach were arranged for jazz ensemble - flute and Jazz Trio.
Breiner's compositions have always been "multidimensional". During his studies, he composed both traditional works, such as Symphony for Orchestra and various avant-garde pieces, including Variations on the Theme of Alban Berg: Antithesis for Big Orchestra. As early as 1976, he was fascinated by crossing over different musical worlds, as indicated in his Concertino for Viola and Strings. The idea of neoclassic confrontation appeared at the beginning of Breiner's composition experimentation, as shown in Concertino; Fractures; Talking Watch; Something Like a Concert for Piano and Orchestra; Little Suite. Later, he preferred a synthesis of both polarized types of music, heard in Another Concert for Piano and Orchestra; "...to lighten your pathway...", Sonata Ostinata, and Concert for Orchestra and Orchestra. These works bring his music closer to the world of Leonard Bernstein.
Breiner has also recently conducted the world premiere of two of his own compositions: The Story, an oratorio based on biblical texts and scored for five vocal soloists, two choirs and a large orchestra; and "� there must be something �", Concerto for Piano, Violin, Violoncello and Orchestra. Canadian classics such as Anne of Green Gables, the CBC television show Wind at My Back, and Timothy Findley's Piano Man's Daughter, produced by Whoopi Goldberg, have also included Breiner's music.
Trumpeter Juraj Bartos is the artistic leader of the Bratislava Hot Serenaders, a group focusing on early jazz of the 1920's and 1930's. In 1994 the Serenaders won the first prize at the International New Orleans Jazz Festival in France. Performing internationally, Bartos has been the soloist with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra since 1991. Holding a number of prestigious awards, he was the finalist at the Prague Spring in 1992. Furthermore Bartos was granted "Diplome de Laureat" of the 15e Tribune Internationalle des Jeunes Interpretes held by UNESCO.
In addition to his classical music appearances, Bartos often performs with distinguished jazz ensembles in Prague jazz clubs and elsewhere. The Czech jazz critics acknowledged Bartos as The Talent of the Year 1993. He has recorded dozens of CDs including Two Presidents' Jam Session with Bill Clinton. Juraj Bartos is a lead trumpeter of the legendary Gustav Brom Orchestra. He has also performed with Liza Minelli, Ray Charles, and Shirley Bassey, in Prague he performed with Dizzy Gillespie. Recently he has been featured along with jazzmen such as Bob Mintzer, Bobby Shew, Bill Watrous, Yves Robert, Michel Godard and Arkady Shilkloper. He has performed with the Vienna Art Orchestra, Nouvelle Cusine, the Lungau Big Band, among others. He has appeared at many jazz festivals, the well-known Pori Jazz (Finland ), Saalfelden (Austria), The Red Sea Jazz Festival (Israel), Brass Meeting Graz (Austria), Zurich Jazz Festival (Switzerland), Jazz in the Duketown, Breda Jazz Festival (Holland), to name just a few. In Bratislava, his arrangements are included in the popular stage musicals Cabaret and Sugar. In 2002 he was awarded the "Best Producer in Slovakia" award by the International Federation of Phonographic Industry in Slovakia.
