Percussion in Concert

Bertold Hummel: Concerto for percussion and large orchestra op. 70
Paul Creston: Concertino for marimba and orchestra
Darius Milhaud: Concerto for marimba, vibraphone and orchestra

Peter Sadlo
Bamberg Symphony Orchestra
Wolfgang Rögner

Recording February/April 1996

CD tip from Bayerischer Rundfunk:

J.S. Bach would certainly have enjoyed this concerto for percussion and orchestra by Bertold Hummel, whose second movement plays with the famous B-A-C-H motif in a highly original way. Bach himself even composed strongly rhythm-orientated music in his church cantatas, which earned him harsh criticism from pious Christians during his lifetime ("dancing rubbish"). In his concerto for percussion and orchestra, Bertold Hummel draws an arc from B-A-C-H to the twentieth century with the tone sequence D-S-C-H for Dimitri Shostakovich. A music-historical homage of great musical expressiveness, seriousness and depth. This work, premiered in 1985, is interpreted congenially by Peter Sadlo on his new CD "Percussion in Concert". Sadlo is the masterful playmaker when, together with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra under Wolfgang Rögner, he puts everything the percussion has to offer into action. The term "virtuoso" is just a tired auxiliary word here. You can't help but think of those Indian deities who have more than just two arms at their disposal when you listen to Peter Sadlo using wood and skin to make his battery of percussion instruments, including vibraphone and marimba, resound. Peter Sadlo offers percussion that could not be more effective, exciting and tonally mature, but which nevertheless does not stop at pure effect. Bertold Hummel's Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra is the central work on this CD.

Jürgen Seeger