(Contemporary, Classical, Norway, Tuba) Oystein Baadsvik, Erlend Skomsvoll, The Trondheim Soloists - Ferry Tales - 2010, WEB, FLAC (tracks), lossless

With a busy international concert schedule and a number of acclaimed discs, Øystein Baadsvik has made a name for himself as one of today's finest tuba players, as well as an indefatigable and imaginative advocate for the instrument. His first disc, Tuba Carnival, was described on the website Classics Today as a 'perfectly executed recital in which humor, charm, and virtuosity combine to make the best possible case for the tuba as star of the show' while the reviewer in International Record Review found that his playing on the disc Danzas 'combines sweetness with strength, intensity with perception'. His wide-ranging repertoire includes works by composers as diverse as Elgar, Kalevi Aho and Piazzolla, but on this new disc he still manages to surprise with his versatility. Plans for it originated some ten years ago, when Baadsvik was touring with the Norwegian jazz pianist and composer/arranger Erlend Skomsvoll. Touring in Norway by necessity entails getting across any number of fjords and it was during one of the innumerable ferry crossings that Baadsvik and Skomsvoll hit upon the idea of a disc with music which shouldn't be confined to any particular genre, composed and arranged by the two of them for tuba, piano and strings. After a long period of gestation, here is the result: 'Ferry Tales' - a disc which combines original compositions with imaginative and unexpected arrangements of classics such as Somewhere Over the Rainbow and Alexander Borodin's Prince Igor. Baadsvik's tuba and Skomsvoll's piano are joined by the Trondheim Soloists, the acclaimed string ensemble here playing a role which goes far beyond that of simply providing accompaniments.
The release of this disc is the end of a eleven-year journey, lined with aha experiences, unprecedented public response and extraordinary people with faith in the music, but also bad luck, technical problems and lack of faith.
It all started in 1999 when pianist/composer Skomsvoll Erlend and I were touring the West Coast of Norway. In between concerts and chess playing were many discussions about music, and during one of the countless ferry trips the idea of making a CD together was born (thereby the CD title). The music should be composed and arranged by Erlend and me, it should be genre-crossing and the instrumentation should be tuba, piano and string quartet.
The first concert was held in Namsos, Norway. The audience was very enthusiastic about what they thought to be a new musical concept, which led to yet another concert at Trondheim Chamber Music Festival, where the concert was recorded for a possible CD release. After another applauded concert we looked forward to hearing the recording. Everything was gone. Someone (me) had forgotten to press "Save" on the recorder!
We recorded a couple of songs for NRK, Norwegian radio, and then we all took of to do different projects.
The process stopped, we had no money and I assumed that the music was never destined to be recorded. But then something totally unexpected happened. After I had played some of this music at a concert in Greensboro, North Carolina in 2001, the amateur tubist Gary Price from Houston came up to me and says that he loved the music. He offered to finance a good part of the recording costs so that the CD could be released. Gary was not a rich man and at that point had the choice to support the album or to buy a new car. "... And how many will be happy if I buy a new car?" he says before he drives off in his old Honda.
After this incredible gesture I regain my belief in music. The Trondheim Soloists with its leader Øyvind Gimse are very curious about different musical styles and enter the project as an active partner. I had just signed a contract with the BIS recording label, and in 2005 we finally recorded half of the CD. Then I do four other discs on the BIS before I finally found time to finish the project in 2010, more than ten years after the idea was born. I think it was worth the wait!

What do most people know about tuba? That it is that huge hippo that makes those raspy grunts three or four times during a symphony. Well, what most people think about the tuba is wrong. Indeed, it can reach to the lowest places where no other instrument can go, and it's in this capacity that orchestral composers use it most frequently. But the tuba is more than this. It is a full-ranged instrument with a pleasant baritonal voice in the upper register. Personally, I would prefer an hour of listening to a solo tuba than to a solo French horn: the tuba's voice is clearer, without the snuffling nasality of the horn. The tuba is also endowed with a full virtuosic ability. In the right hands it can be a brilliant soloing instrument. The problem is, the right hands are few and far between.
Øystein Baadsvik is one of today’s leading tuba players. He is allegedly the only one that maintains a successful solo career, without keeping a chair in a major orchestra. He has premiered some fifty solo works, many of them composed for him. He has issued a number of excellent recordings characterized by attractive programming and highest level of quality. It will not be an exaggeration to say that in the last few years he has done as much for the emancipation of this unjustly obscure instrument as Vaughan Williams and Hindemith did in the Fifties with their pioneering tuba concerto and sonata.
On the present disc, as on his earlier ones, Baadsvik amazes with his virtuosity and gentle touch. In his hands, the tuba is light and agile. In fact, it rarely descends to the dark low places which are considered its designated realm. It mostly sings in the warm baritonal register, but sometimes soars even higher. There it does not get the comic look of a flying elephant, a basso buffo that risked to go too high; instead it sounds calm and natural.
This disc is unusual in several ways. First, it is not tuba-centred. The piano has an important role, as well as the strings. It's usually the combination of some two of these three voices that you hear. The pianist is the composer, arranger and conductor Erlend Skomsvoll. The third voice comes from the Trondheim Soloists, a Grammy-nominated chamber string ensemble. They are resonant and delicate. Baadsvik's virtuosity is far from being offered as the main attraction of the disc: the tuba is silent for long stretches of time. The focus is on the music itself, and the tuba player just happens to be a virtuoso. Such unselfishness is praiseworthy.
Second, the music is not mainstream classical. It's more of the James Galway's "popular" style: sweet and mostly undemanding. This similarity is enhanced by the string envelope in which it is wrapped. However, Skomsvoll's piano brings in attractive jazziness, which does not let the music roll into smooth "easy listening". Skomsvoll worked with Chick Corea, and indeed there is something from this jazz master in his technique. There are only two internationally known tunes on the disc: Borodin's Fly Away on the Wings of the Wind from Prince Igor, and Arlen's Somewhere Over the Rainbow from The Wizard of Oz. The remaining pieces are either by Baadsvik, by Skomsvoll, or are Skomsvoll's arrangements of pieces by other Scandinavian composers. The compositions are short: 3 to 6 minutes long. The arrangements are diverse and inventive, and maintain interest over the disc’s span.
One musical presence that I felt was the "New Age Music" of groups such as Secret Garden. However, without the electronic component and repetitiveness of the conventional "New Age", there is none of the feeling of "cheapness" that so often comes with such music. Do not get me wrong: Ferry Tales is not music for pure relaxation and meditation. It is inspired and calls for active listening. The mood of optimism and harmony prevails, although some pieces are darker and more dramatic - such as Baadsvik's own Tango, or the Prince Igor arrangement. My favorite is the Grindstone Waltz: it is a mini-story that starts poignantly nostalgic, but then the strings become angry. Picking Velvet Grass is just a great tune for a song. Déjà vu and Dancing on a Blue Ribbon have the light-footed airiness of a folk dance.
The liner-note contains a reminiscence by Baadsvik on the album's long gestation, and brief descriptions of each piece by Baadsvik and Skomsvoll, as well as the biography of the performers - all this in English, Norwegian, German and French. The recording quality is at the BIS level that we are accustomed to, catching well the three voices.
You don't need to be a tuba enthusiast in order to listen to this disc: but you'll probably become one at the end. The music has warmth and depth, and is presented with love. On the other hand, you won't encounter serious musical experiences here. This is good for evening ambience and wears well over repeated listening. It's not boring. It's not a must, but it is nice.