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Florian Weber Podcast

In the 41st episode of the ECM podcast we’re joined by Florian Weber, who’s new recording Imaginary Cycle sees the pianist in the company of a major brass section plus a flute. Florian talks about the various inspirations that went into the […]

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Artists in Focus

Anja Lechner

For her first violoncello album on ECM’s New Series, Anja Lechner devotes herself to a particularly unique convergence of three composers from vastly different contexts: JS Bach, Carl Friedrich Abel and Tobias Hume. In the past, her extensive discography has captured the cellist as part of the renowned Rosamunde Quartett, as well as alongside seminal artists from both trans-idiomatic sound worlds and the realm of classical music, gracing her with rare musical farsightedness. With her distinct perspective on works composed for both violoncello and viola da gamba, Lechner sheds a fresh light on music written within a span of two centuries. Framing the first two solo suites from the famous group of six Bach wrote for the violoncello at its heart, the programme encompasses Abel and Hume compositions, originally conceived for viola da gamba, which are given new colour and breadth through Lechner’s interpretation on cello – In parts newly arranged by herself.

Anja Lechner
Anja Lechner

Albums in Focus

Imaginary Cycle

Idiosyncratic, large-scale and in its fundamental disposition one of a kind, Florian Weber’s Imaginary Cycle, conceived for the unique instrumentation of brass ensemble and piano, is a hybrid of multiple musical languages that seamlessly blends the harmonious with the oblique. Here Weber presents a cycle in four parts, plus an opening and an epilogue, in which the German pianist is joined by a group of four euphoniums, a trombone quartet as well as flautist Anna-Lena Schnabel and Michel Godard on the seldomly used “serpent” brass instrument, together performing a work that blurs the line where improvisation ends and composition begins. As the ensemble elegantly journeys across Florian’s multiple-idioms-spanning oeuvre, symphonic passages mingle with intricate counterpoint, pastoral notions are contrasted with textures more contemporary and each voice in the ensemble plays an independent part, adding to a whole.

Imaginary Cycle

About ECM

The Label

The independent record label ECM – Edition of Contemporary Music – was founded by producer Manfred Eicher in 1969, and to date has issued more than 1800 albums spanning many idioms.

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