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Gordon: Bassoon Concerto "Observations on Air"

Gordon: Bassoon Concerto "Observations on Air"

cover-CKD617.jpg
Label(s)
Genre(s)
Classical
Code
CKD 617
Booklet available for download
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Price
$12.25
  • Bassoon Concerto "Observations on Air": I. Electricity
    Composer(s) Michael Gordon
    Artist(s) Peter Whelan Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

    Bassoon Concerto "Observations on Air": I. Electricity

    07:48
    $3.60
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  • Bassoon Concerto "Observations on Air": II. Dephlogisticated Air
    Composer(s) Michael Gordon
    Artist(s) Peter Whelan Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

    Bassoon Concerto "Observations on Air": II. Dephlogisticated Air

    06:21
    $3.60
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  • Bassoon Concerto "Observations on Air": III. The Club of Honest Whigs
    Composer(s) Michael Gordon
    Artist(s) Peter Whelan Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

    Bassoon Concerto "Observations on Air": III. The Club of Honest Whigs

    09:57
    $5.00
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Total running time: 24 minutes.

    Album information

    Peter Whelan and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment give the world premiere recording of Michael Gordon’s Bassoon Concerto. 

    Commissioned by the OAE and premiered in 2016, ‘Observations on Air’ was written specifically for Peter Whelan and the orchestra’s period instruments. The work is an homage to the Age of Enlightenment British scientist and radical theologian Joseph Priestley and captures the energy, excitement and sense of discovery of the age. Inspired by the meetings of the Club of Honest Whigs where Priestly, Benjamin Franklin and other Enlightenment figures met, Michael Gordon imagines the bassoon taking the lead as the other instruments join in conversation.

    Soloist Peter Whelan commented: “It challenges the way I think about the classical bassoon and encourages me to consider new possibilities in terms of timbres and extended techniques.” Over the past 25 years, Michael Gordon has produced a strikingly diverse body of work; his music consistently embraces a collision of mysterious introspection and brutal directness that defies categorization.