44.00 PLN

CD:

Nr kat.: SK89483
Label  : SONY

If there is a theme to John Williams' activities in the first half of the new decade, it is not a musical one, as his performances have been arguably more varied than ever before; it's a theme of friendship, personal and musical, old and new. He opened the new millennium with a benefit concert with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican in London on 9th January 2000 for the victims of the earthquakes in Turkey which had devastated the country in August and November 1999, the prorgamme appropriately including a performance of Domeniconi's Koyunbaba. John Williams and Leo Brouwer In March, he again toured Europe with Inti Illimani and Paco Peña, while Sony Classical released a compilation album of tracks from the last dozen years or so under the title Romance of the Guitar, which did include three new tracks, Romance, Williams' own arrangement of Fauré's Pavanne and a new arrangement of El condor pasa by Jorge Morel, recorded just before Christmas. After a short UK tour in early May, he made his first professional appearance in Cuba for the island's Tenth International Guitar Festival, in a concert devised and conducted by Leo Brouwer (consisting largely of the contents of their 1997 album). He opened the 2000/2001 season with another recital tour of Australia. In September and October, he was in recording studios in London and Paris working on his latest CD, the fruits of the previous several years' research into the guitar music of Africa, and the spring of 2001 saw the release of The Magic Box. Williams had approached this project with more trepidation than most of his previous ventures, wondering as he did whether "five white blokes from North London" could do justice to this material. He need not have worried, though: his guide and inspiration for this project, Francis Bebey, had given it his blessing. The other four white blokes were long-time collaborators Richard Harvey on all manner of exotic blown and plucked instruments and bassist Chris Laurence, plus newcomers to the Friends circle, jazz guitarist John Etheridge playing steel-string acoustic, and percussionist extraordinaire Paul Clarvis. For the recording, they were joined on individual tracks by Bebey himself, the African Children's Choir and even a string section.