Customer Reviews

Two Contras

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a contrabassoonist myself, I just wish I had one of these folks in my own neighborhood to play duets with. :) Wow! To hear not one, but TWO, of these hideous contraptions playing together is nothing less than FABULOUS! This recording has now been added to my list of "must haves" - it deserves far more than just five stars!

I just switched to bassoon from sax two years ago at the start of college and have also gotten the wonderful opportunity to learn contrabassoon. Last semester, I picked up this and another one of Susan Nigro's albums, "The Big Bassoon", and I couldn't believe how satisfying this music is to listen to! The last song in particular ("The Impish Imp") makes me smile my face off and want to get up and dance...and I'm usually not one for dancing! I highly suggest listening to its preview over at www.bigbassoon.com, as it's quite different from the pieces previewed at Amazon.

In short, I obviously enjoyed this purchase immensely, and I'd recommend it to anyone. Especially if you're a bassoonist or a collector of unique albums.

The grades are in:
110% for novelty.
88% for musicality.

The actual musical results on this CD are definitely a *lot* better than you might expect from the seemingly ludicrous concept of duets of contrabass instruments.

I in fact am a bassoonist and a contrabassoonist to a fair degree, but am more fundamentally a composer. If you happen to be a bassoonist or otherwise a bassoon fan, you will probably find this CD to be 10 of 10; an amazing part of your collection. If you're a general music lover, however, you'll probably find it worth buying, but not among your most prized posessions.

I have two main comments about the details of the recording: First, don't try to listen to this in noisy surroundings; there are too many subtlties that can get lost. Use headphones or a good-quality stereo system.

Second, the compositions purpose-written for contrabassoons are substantially more musically meaningful than those written for bassoon. The reason is range. Susan Nigro and Burl Lane are able to routinely play the entire 3.5-octave bassoon range on their contras. The purpose-written compositions take advantage of this, whereas the bassoon compositions include tight chords that, when knocked down an octave to the contrabass range end up muddled. Of course, when they do play in the deep-contrabass range, the results are quite an experience!

In short, although this CD has more novelty value than musical value, its musical value is much greater than you'd probably imagine possible.

This is a magnificent CD played by two virtuosi of this unusual solo instrument. You do not hear much of the contra in the orchestra because it's more of a deep presence than a loud sound. You need a good sub-woofer to really appreciate what these two excellent players can do.