Rui Lopes & English Chamber Orchestra – Through Time

Description

The dream of many classical musicians is to record as a soloist with an extraordinary orchestra such as the English Chamber Orchestra. Mine came true thanks to Verena and Hans-Ulrich’s invitation and I could not be happier! This privilege, together with the fact that I could chose the repertoire and the recording team made it even more fascinating and special. The list of pieces that I love to play is quite long, and making the selection was both interesting and challenging. I did not want to have only one theme or period in musical history, but rather a selection of pieces that I enjoy playing the most from our beautiful repertoire. I started from the beginning (or almost..) with Vivaldi..how could I ‘escape’ Mozart? And Villa-Lobos? I wanted it to be a journey through the bassoon – ‘the unknown soloist’ – repertoire. And Elgar? And the Françaix which had never been recorded with string orchestra? The ‘chamber music’ nature of the pieces led me to record without a conductor and to share leadership with the great Stephanie Gonley, ECO’s concertmaster. (Rui Lopes)

The project was a great challenge, due to the difficulty of the pieces, but thanks to our amazing producer Andrew Keener we really had fun with it. I hope you’ll enjoy this journey “Through Time”.

Although Rui Lopes only began studying the bassoon at eighteen, his musical temperament and virtuosity were quickly recognized and received many awards, including first prize in the prestigious Estoril International Competition. One of the most promising bassoonists of his generation, he shares his great passion for music with concert audiences all over the world.