Bach to the Future, Music for Percussion

This latest album by the Safri Duo has three premiere recordings and promises to be another exciting  album, and will be the first recording featuring the Safri Duo with a large symphony orchestra, producing a truly thrilling sound in every way.

Originally, Goldrush was written as a brilliant showpiece for the Safri Duo in 1995, using the whole range of percussion instruments to an exciting and powerful effect. The Goldrush Concerto for Percussion and orchestra recorded here was written in 1997 and is more spectacular yet, using the full force of the orchestra, not in opposition with the soloists, but rather, in the words of the composer Jacob der Velhuis, where both forces ’unite and transform into one huge drum’. As one might guess from the title, the music was inspired by the great gold-rushes, events which led to so many catastrophes in the history of man. The Concerto begins where Goldrush ends; with the disovery of Gold. It is dedicated to the Safri Duo.

Bach to the Future was composed out of Per Nørgård’s fascination with three of the preludes from Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier. The result was this fascinating three-movement concerto which not only pays hommage to the great composer, but lets us hear his music in an exciting and original way. It was composed in 1996 and is also dedicated to the Safri Duo.

The 42nd Street Rondo was commissioned by the Danish Percussion Group with financial support from the Danish State Art Foundation. The title refers to the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway in Manhattan where street musicians often perform. it is written for two percussionists with two matched sets of percussion instruments, and the performers are given a certain amount of freedom to shape the piece during performance - an exciting and original work.

Steve Reich’s Nagoya Marimbas was commissioned by the Conservatory in Nagoya, Japan, to mark the opening of their new Shirakawa Hall in 1994. The work is based on a series of repeated patterns played on both marimbas, one or more beats out of phase, creating a series of two-part unison cannons. The patterns are frequently changed, which requires two extremely virtuosic performers, and the result is sonically quite thrilling.