ROAD SIGNS (2017)

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DOWNLOAD PROGRAM NOTES (English)
DOWNLOAD PROGRAM NOTES (German)

(click on image of excerpt to enlarge)

Stream on Spotify
Stream on YouTube

More information about the recording of Road Signs on the album VIENNA AND THE WEST
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Purchase the sheet music for Road Signs  at:
Theodore Front Musical Literature, Inc.
TrevCo Music
sheetmusicplus.com

Reviews:

“From the first bars of the album’s opening track “Road Signs”, I was immediately struck by the effortless grace with which the composer wove the soaring bassoon line through the rhythmic jazz chords of the piano. It felt like a dance, sailing along, pausing, and then picking up again to take me around another musical bend.I later came to find out this piece was about navigating LA traffic. Perfection.”

Jeffrey Palmer, CutCommon

“The opening piece, “Road Signs” (2017) is a really gorgeous work for bassoon and piano.  The piece features some interesting rhythmic ideas but shines in its lyrical writing for the solo instrument.  The episodic, and sometimes reflective nature makes for a stunning open to the album.”

Steven Kennedy, Cinemusical

“I was struck by three salient characteristics in this work: 1. absolutely superb playing from bassoonist Judith Farmer (who I read is also a co-producer of this CD); 2. absolutely gorgeous Albany recording (which distinguishes this entire CD) – intimate, “present”, and perfectly focused within a warm, yet clear acoustic; 3. most importantly, that unique, musical compositional voice, establishing Gernot Wolfgang as the real deal.”

David Rowe, Classical CD Reviews

“Playing music conceived for the unjustly ignored lowest member of the woodwinds family and using all the technical bells and whistles at the disposal of a virtuoso, bassoonist Judith Farmer elicits a plangent and haunting sound from her instrument in a composition by Wolfgang that musically evokes the sparse vividness of a Georgia O’Keefe canvas.”

Rafael de Acha, Rafael’s Music Notes

“We begin with the witty “Road Signs”, about Los Angeles’s idée fixe: traffic. This features the bassoon, which so often seems to be having way more fun than every other instrument. Bassoonist Judith Farmer’s touch is light when it needs to be, but she doesn’t hesitate to stick the best jokes.”

Dean Frey, Music for Several Instruments

“His bassoon and piano duo called “Road Signs” sports some angular but flexible lines for the serio-comic perambulations of the bassoon, but paragraphs of refined lyricism too, as well as an element of slight melancholy in its soliloquy. It rounds out a complete portrait of the instrument adeptly supported by piano.”

Jonathan Woolf, Musicweb-International