(Avant-Garde Jazz, Modern Composition, Leo Records) [CD] Anthony Braxton - Ensemble Montaigne (Bau 4) - 2013, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Music by Anthony Braxton
Produced by Roland Dahinden and Leo Feigin
Recorded and mastered by Andrew Phillips in April-June 2013 at Schaerholzbau, Atburon, Switzerland
Architecture: Blum & Grossenbacher
Photos: Daniela Kienzler
Graphic design: Stefan Weibel
Liner notes: Pirmin Bossart
Followers of the remarkable avant-garde composer and instrumentalist, Anthony Braxton, whose work bestrides the worlds of jazz and contemporary classics, categories that he would no doubt eagerly reject in preference for `pure music`, will be thrilled by these interpretations of his work by a top flight Swiss chamber orchestra under the baton of Roland Dahinden, a Swiss composer and trombonist and assistant to Braxton in the mid nineties.
Seven pieces, numerically identified and contained in a single track, are reinterpreted in orchestral terms quite different from their original realisation and it is difficult to know where Braxton’s compositional intentions and Dahinden’s improvisational embellishments begin and end. It is widely acknowledged that Braxton’s idiosyncratic scores, with symbols and diagrams replacing conventional notation, are notoriously difficult to understand and in this respect Dahinden and his players must be congratulated on producing a recital that communicates with a powerful clarity.
This is music that requires a high degree of concentration on the part of the listener but let me assure you, it is worth the effort for within these complex, at times fragmentary and episodic motifs and textures you will find jostling together, the dramatic, the cathartic , the melodic and often humorous statements that speak of a musical intelligence that encompasses the baroque thru the late Viennese school to the wayward Americana of Charles Ives not to mention a huge dollop of Braxtonian iconoclasm.
What I hear in this music are resonances of Gyorgy Ligeti, Edgard Varese, Anton Webern and woven within, snatches of melody that recall Sousa marches: in all ,a rich tapestry of sound which the instrumental prowess of the Ensemble Montaigne is able to exploit to the full through its formidable virtuosity. Though episodic at times the music is not without form: there are iridescent textures, hammer blows of percussive power, terrifying climaxes, and baroque delicacy and rousing march like passages for the wind instruments. What is offered is nothing less than a cornucopia of sounds to indulge the discerning ear. - Euan Dixon, Jazzviewscdreviews.weebly.com

Ensemble Montaigne:
Claudia Kienzler: violin
David Sonton Caflisch: violin
Markus Wieser: viola
Celine-Giulia Voser: violoncello
Kaspar Wirz: double bass
Julianna Wetzel: flutes, piccolo
Peter Vogeli: oboe, english horn
Nicola Katz: clarinet, bass clarinet
Maurus Conte: bassoon
Martin Huber: french horn
Roland Dahinden: guest conductor