The Ensemble La Volta from Switzerland knows very well how to present the plucked instruments of the world and the typical music for those instruments in their concerts.
When you visit a concert by La Volta you can hear and see all kinds of plucked instruments. Every member of the group plays several instruments, and the instruments are exchanged permanently. The music that you hear will originate from four or five centuries, including medieval dances, music of the Renaissance, but also Brazilian choro, American bluegrass and Southamerican folk dances.
Jürgen Hübscher started to offer ensemble classes in 1984 as an addition to his guitar lessons at the music school in Riehen. The ensemble was named La Volta and over the years has given many concerts all over the world. They have produced six CDs. Their latest CD Ensalada has been published recently.
New CD – Ensalada
The new CD Ensalada contains folk music from Southamerica, Spain, Bulgaria, Greece and Switzerland as well as music from the 17th and 18th century from Ireland, England, Italy and Germany.
18 Pieces have been recorded on March 8th 2011, the Ensemble La Volta was composed of Tobias Schmitz, Yannick Gattlen, Jürgen Hübscher, Silvan Stöckli, Lilli Beile, Valerie Schneider, Philip Stämpfli und Maxim Lavoie.
The following instruments were used for the recording: classical guitar, octave guitar, requinto, guitarra de son, baroque guitar, archlute, six-course baroque mandolin, pandora, cuatro Puertoriqueno, guitarron, charango, mandolin, five string banjo, Cuatro Venezolano, hammered dulcimer, bombo, crash cymbals, maracas, triangle, waldteufel, matchbox, rainstick, bird voices, tambourine, cajon, darbuka, bells, bread knife.
A 16-page booklet includes descriptions of all the pieces and the instruments played.
This CD Ensalada is great to call back a concert with La Volta or to prepare for a coming concert. It is great to listen to the sounds of all the different plucked instruments and the great and often surprising arrangements.
A CD that presents the diversity of the music for plucked instruments, a CD the demonstrates the high quality of the young musicians of La Volta – a CD that you can play again and again.
La Arboleda – Guitar Ensemble “La Volta”
Playlist from a concert in 2011
Playlist with several tracks of the previous La Volta CD “Hermes Invention”
Playlist with the videos of the anniversary concert of La Volta
Additional Information
- Homepage La Volta: http://www.la-volta.com/
- Youtube channel of La Volta: http://www.youtube.com/user/jgnhbr
- My previous post about La Volta: http://www.mandoisland.com/?p=156