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SFR 357.4070.2 Cover
Clouds and Silver Linings

Michael Schlierf

SFR 357.4070.2

Stereo Hybrid SACD

Michael Schlierf started playing piano at the age of 5. Beginning with a classical education he later decided to learn jazz piano.   Since 1985 he studied jazz and popular music at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart.

As an enthusiastic aficionado of instrumental music - Michael Schlierf lets the music do the talking.   This can be felt in the music of his compositions - that language that begins where words start to fail.   Stockfisch-Records releases a wonderful SACD album with 14 of his pieces arranged for several instruments: besides the piano you'll hear string quartet, oboe, cor Anglais, flute, clarinet and harp plus saxophone, guitar, dobro, bass and drums.

Michael Schlierf's first CD for Stockfisch is called Clouds and Silver Linings.   It is the music itself that makes that idiom's double meaning transparent.   On one level it deals with clouds and light, broad daylight and the dark at nightfall – nature around us and at the core of our being.

Nature whose acts artists of all times have seen as a mirror and a symbol of inner life.   This is not different in this music depicting an emotional journey from its outset and the passage through darkness to the happy ending in the light.

Change is not something Michael Schlierf exactly has to look for.   As a pianist who on one day plays with Johannes Heesters and another day plays at the Olympics, he is more likely to find change when at home with his family.   That's exactly what this artist does.   His family, his home in Southern Germany from which he sets out for concert tours and his Christian faith are the things that give him energy.

Musicians:
Michael Schlierf, grand piano (Fazioli F 228)
Klaus Graf, soprano saxophone, clarinet, flute, alto flute
Viorel Bindila, oboe, cor anglais
Wojtek Bolimowski, violin
Madalina Bobocel, violin
Oksana Labach, viola

Lucile Chaubard, violoncello
Natalja Girunjan, concert harp
Michael Koschorrek, guitars, dobro
Ralf Gustke, drums, percussion
Decebal Badila, double bass, fretless bass
Heinz Ruhmann, reading
1. Onto the Journey
2. When Summer's Finally Over
3. Last Peace of the Picture
4. Circling of the Question Lark
5. The Wisdom of the Children
6. Hickory (The Southern Caress)
7. Unendlich sanft in seinen Handen (Rilke's tune)
8. Ninefold Nightfall (The Fir Wood)
  9. Reflections on a Quiet Lake
10. Comfort in Calm
11. Breezin' With George
12. One Hand In Melody
13. I Saw Roses For the First Time
14. Going Back Home
15. Vom Beten - Das Vaterunser / Lord's Prayer
       Total playing time, 60:55
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