Chamber Songs -- Live at Tonutti Winery

In his short life, Robert Schumann wrote some of the most beautiful melodies in the whole European canon. Art, they seem to tell us, is the white lie, the beautiful lie, that covers up the pain of the world. Though that might also be a definition of the blues, many jazz and improvising musicians have preferred to leave Schumann unexplored, perhaps feeling that his songs are best left to specialists and preserved exactly as they were.  Not so clarinettist Gabriele Mirabassi and pianist Enrico Zanisi. On Chamber Songs, recorded in the beautiful Tonutti Winery in Adegliacco - Tavagnacco, Italy, they have taken four Schumann melodies, plus original material, and given highly personalised readings of them. Informed by jazz practice, but still faithful to the originals, these glowing performances add another chapter to an enriching new genre in which improvising musicians, instead of relying on Broadway or pop material, return to the classical literature for inspiration.  Chamber Songs is the latest in CAM JAZZ’s series of live recordings at Italian wineries. Wine is just another of the beautiful lies that allow us to live a little more easily in the world. Robert Schumann would have approved, both of the setting and of how his music is presented by Mirabassi and Zanisi. (Brian Morton)

Recorded Live at Tonutti Winery (Adegliacco - Tavagnacco, Italy) on 5 June 2018
Recording engineer Stefano Amerio

Photos by Elisa Caldana