© Andrew Doe
“Drums, trumpets sound, shot goes off.”
Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 5.
The second album on my new record label, Colin Currie Records, will be a duo album with Håkan Hardenberger. I’m absolutely delighted that this project has come together, and at a perfect time for our duo. At the start of this season we premiered Brett Dean’s ghoulish and groovy …the scene of the crime… and we have performed in Malmö, London, Aldeburgh and Bergen. This summer we visit the Fjord Classics Festival together and make our Baltic Debut, in Latvia.
Håkan is, of course, a legend. Our friendship started over performances of Stravinsky’s L’Histoire du Soldat nearly 15 years ago, when we began wondering about giving Jolivet’s Heptade a go. If ever a work could be simultaneously both raucous and refined, this is it, and it has been in our repertoire ever since. I’m very happy that this work, this classic, will be the opening track on the album.
Three further premieres are also put onto disc here – wildly varied works by Swedes Daniel Bortz and Tobias Brostrom, and my long-standing British collaborator, Joe Duddell. I can tell you that these sessions at Potton Hall, Suffolk, were feverishly intense as well as being so immensely enjoyable. This was also very much down to our supreme producer, Marion Schwebel, whom I worked with here for the first, and I am certain not for the last time. Suffolk being Suffolk, we also had time for a few lovely pub meals and even managed a tour of the Adnams Brewery. All in all, a great week – so keep watching for updates on this one as it is due to be turned around quickly for release this autumn!