Pre-Order: November - Julius Berger [CD]

With 'November', Julius Berger presents a personal concept album in which the cello carries a quiet, autumnally concentrated journey in sound. The programme centres on works for cello and piano as well as for two cellos, bringing together classical poise, contemporary threshold experiences and spiritual resonance within a symmetrically conceived whole.At it's heart stands Schubert's 'Arpeggione Sonata', the lyrical point of rest and reference in the programme, sustained by the fragile inner tension that makes it's melodic breath so unmistakable. Around it are grouped Klaus Hinrich Stahmer's nature-inflected 'Bergwind', Sciarrino's nocturnal study of perception 'Ai limiti della notte', Morton Feldman's expansive sense of duration and Mark Andre's approach to the threshold of silence.With Hildegard of Bingen and Stahmer's closing prayer of gratitude, the perspective opens beyond the present. Thus 'November' emerges not as a loose sequence of attractive pieces, but as a coherent album about sound, memory, nature and inwardness - carried by Berger's cello and by the concentrated dialogue with the piano and a second cello.