New Musicbuff (US)
Petri Goes Brazilian
Since her debut in 1969 at the tender age of 11 Danish born recorder virtuoso Michala Petri has been one of the finest masters of the recorder. This ancient instrument, a forerunner of the flute, has existed since the Middle Ages and has amassed a huge repertoire and Petri seems to have demonstrated mas-tery over all of it and has been an advocate and promoter of new music for her instrument as well. She has inspired composers to write new works for her and she continues to entertain audiences and has assembled an ever growing discography of startling range and diversity. Nearly single handed she has managed to honor past repertoire and firmly ensconce this instrument in the 21st century.
In this release, produced by Lars Hannibal (himself a fine guitarist and frequent Petri collaborator) Petri takes on the music of Brazil and, despite the fact that recorders have seldom found their way into the music of this geographic region, she delivers a convincing and hugely entertaining program on this disc. Along with Marilyn Mazur on percussion and Daniel Murray on guitar the listener is given an en-tertaining cross section of Brazilian music ranging from the more classically oriented work of Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) and Ernesto Nazareth (1863-1934) to the smooth jazz/pop sounds of Antonio Carlos Jobim (1925-1994) and Egberto Gismonti (1947- ). In between are included works by the al-bum’s guitarist Daniel Murray (1981- ) and a few names unfamiliar to this reviewer including Paulo Porto Alegre (1953- ), Paulo Bellinati (1950- ), Hermeto Pascoal (1936- ), and Antonio Ribero (1971- ).
There is a remarkable unity in this Danish production which stems from a meeting between producer Lars Hannibal and Daniel Murray in Vienna in 2014. Hannibal’s ear found a kindred spirit whose musicality is a good match for that of Petri. And like a good chef he added the delicate and necessary spice of the tastefully understated (but extraordinary) percussionist Marilyn Mazur to create a unique trio that sounds as though they’ve played together for years. Here’s hoping that they’ve secretly rec-orded enough material for a second album.
All the tracks appear to be transcriptions though the transcriber is not named (I’m guessing they’re col-laborative). What’s nice is that there is nothing artificial or uncomfortable about these arrange-ments. The overall impression left is that of a skilled ensemble and listeners encountering the original forms of these works might well assume those to be the transcriptions. So convincing are these performances.

One last thing. The sound. This super audio CD release was engineered by Mikkel Nymand and Preben Iwan and the sound is fabulous. I don’t have a machine that can read the super audio tracks on this hybrid disc but what I can hear is a lucid recording which embraces the subtleties of this unique ensemble. Enjoy! July 16.2017 by perkustooth

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