Modern Bridges

With this recording - Modern Bridges - the Swiss Tetrapod Ensemble - flutist Nuriia Khasenova, clarinettist Damien Bachmann, cellist Christoph Croisé and pianist François-Xavier Poizat - proves how serious yet entertaining and how universally comprehensible contemporary music can be and be felt if one builds modern bridges to it. This CD is the fruit of many years of cooperation and international concert activities of these four musicians and unites "classics" of the border zone, of the crossover between classical music and jazz, such as Nikolai Kapustin, with well-known contemporary composers of this genre, such as Daniel Schnyder or Aleksey Igudesman. In this respect, jazz and chamber music go together perfectly: Even a jazz combo is basically nothing other than a chamber ensemble, in which the subtle art of balance and fine-tuning is what matters. And George Gershwin (1898-1937) already created timeless examples of how jazz rhythms and blues harmonies can be transferred into a classical formal language in the first half of the 20th century. Musicians such as Alexander Zfasman (1906-1971) and Claude Bolling (1930-2020) followed in his footsteps and achieved great success with their compositions and crossover projects. The musicians on this recording also contribute to this fascinating genre that transcends all too narrow boundaries. They fuse tradition with modernity. Already in the four-part layout of the programme - a reference to the cyclical form of the classical sonata or symphony - this concern becomes apparent.