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Product details
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Track Listings
| 1. These Are The Good Days |
| 2. Mezzotint |
| 3. Gripper |
| 4. Plain Song |
| 5. Northern Smiles |
| 6. Can We Still Be Friends? |
| 7. Wake Up Call |
| 8. Elmau Tage |
Product Description
Review
Brit superstar Gwilym Simcock may have been a late starter in the recording studio, but he’s making up for it now with a steady stream of albums as leader. His debut, Perception, showcased his trio plus guests and with Good Days at Schloss Elmau the respected ACT label adds Simcock to its roster of international piano soloists.
A cross between the Potala Palace and a swish ski lodge, the imposing Schloss Elmau in the Bavarian Alps draws out Gwilym’s coolly elegant writing and improvising. The whole album is fluid, with Gwilym’s deft finger work sounding like a bubbling mountain stream. Mezzotint is a whirlpool of notes swirling around a melody line that moves from hand to hand and – along with most pieces on the album – it modulates and mood-shifts before your ears.
Like Keith Jarrett, Gwilym started playing as a toddler, becoming a successful young classical pianist before he discovered jazz, and his classical background is tattooed onto all of the pieces on this album. Township melodies pop up from time to time, though, and jazz hallmarks like syncopation and blue notes are never far away.
Wake Up Call takes a straightforward theme and goes way off-piste through shattered scales and broken arpeggios, while Can We Still Be Friends? is a fragile beauty that gets bolder as it gets jazzier. (I swear that the ghost of Cole Porter’s What Is This Thing Called Love? is hiding in it.)
Gripper is such a dense piece that Gwilym sounds as though he has cloned himself to play a duet, his selves leading and following in turn, while in These Are the Good Days he makes the piano masquerade as harp and drum.
This is not music to hum at the first listen. The pieces need to be absorbed slowly. Although Simcock proves himself once again to be world-class, some may find that his solo piano lacks warmth and miss the interplay with other musicians.
--Kathryn Shackleton
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Review
The impression is of the whole of musical history having been profoundly absorbed and utilised as fuel for his spontaneous art. Add to this a thrilling rhythmic precision, structural rigour and an abililty to express an essentially romantic conception with the full range of pianistic colours and timbres and the result is an extraordinary recital by a major talent. Makes bebop sound like child's play. FOUR STARS --Mojo
Despite the title, this dazzling example of solo piano was made in one day at ACT s favourite recording location. Thanks to his classical training, British wunderkind Simcock has so much to call on in terms of technique and the sheer extent of his harmonic resources that they can take him anywhere he wants to go. The results range from the motivic development and rhythmic exuberance of These Are the Good Days , the modulatory colours of Mezzotint and the relatively funky flourishes of Gripper to the melodic elegance of Plain Song , all carried off with impressive spontaneity and intelligence. FOUR STARS --Irish Times
Adventurous yet as sophisticated and technically brilliant as ever, Gwilym Simcock s latest album marks a new stage in his career. FOUR STARS --London Evening Standard
Despite the title, this dazzling example of solo piano was made in one day at ACT s favourite recording location. Thanks to his classical training, British wunderkind Simcock has so much to call on in terms of technique and the sheer extent of his harmonic resources that they can take him anywhere he wants to go. The results range from the motivic development and rhythmic exuberance of These Are the Good Days , the modulatory colours of Mezzotint and the relatively funky flourishes of Gripper to the melodic elegance of Plain Song , all carried off with impressive spontaneity and intelligence. FOUR STARS --Irish Times
Adventurous yet as sophisticated and technically brilliant as ever, Gwilym Simcock s latest album marks a new stage in his career. FOUR STARS --London Evening Standard
Despite the title, this dazzling example of solo piano was made in one day at ACT s favourite recording location. Thanks to his classical training, British wunderkind Simcock has so much to call on in terms of technique and the sheer extent of his harmonic resources that they can take him anywhere he wants to go. The results range from the motivic development and rhythmic exuberance of These Are the Good Days , the modulatory colours of Mezzotint and the relatively funky flourishes of Gripper to the melodic elegance of Plain Song , all carried off with impressive spontaneity and intelligence. FOUR STARS --Irish Times
Adventurous yet as sophisticated and technically brilliant as ever, Gwilym Simcock s latest album marks a new stage in his career. FOUR STARS --London Evening Standard
Breathtaking...an extraordinary recital by a major talent. --Mojo
Full of soaring lyricism and advanced harmony...this record will only advance his cause. --The Times
Despite the title, this dazzling example of solo piano was made in one day at ACT s favourite recording location. Thanks to his classical training, British wunderkind Simcock has so much to call on in terms of technique and the sheer extent of his harmonic resources that they can take him anywhere he wants to go. The results range from the motivic development and rhythmic exuberance of These Are the Good Days , the modulatory colours of Mezzotint and the relatively funky flourishes of Gripper to the melodic elegance of Plain Song , all carried off with impressive spontaneity and intelligence. FOUR STARS --Irish Times
Adventurous yet as sophisticated and technically brilliant as ever, Gwilym Simcock s latest album marks a new stage in his career. FOUR STARS --London Evening Standard
Despite the title, this dazzling example of solo piano was made in one day at ACT s favourite recording location. Thanks to his classical training, British wunderkind Simcock has so much to call on in terms of technique and the sheer extent of his harmonic resources that they can take him anywhere he wants to go. The results range from the motivic development and rhythmic exuberance of These Are the Good Days , the modulatory colours of Mezzotint and the relatively funky flourishes of Gripper to the melodic elegance of Plain Song , all carried off with impressive spontaneity and intelligence. FOUR STARS --Irish Times
Adventurous yet as sophisticated and technically brilliant as ever, Gwilym Simcock s latest album marks a new stage in his career. FOUR STARS --London Evening Standard
Despite the title, this dazzling example of solo piano was made in one day at ACT s favourite recording location. Thanks to his classical training, British wunderkind Simcock has so much to call on in terms of technique and the sheer extent of his harmonic resources that they can take him anywhere he wants to go. The results range from the motivic development and rhythmic exuberance of These Are the Good Days , the modulatory colours of Mezzotint and the relatively funky flourishes of Gripper to the melodic elegance of Plain Song , all carried off with impressive spontaneity and intelligence. FOUR STARS --Irish Times
Adventurous yet as sophisticated and technically brilliant as ever, Gwilym Simcock s latest album marks a new stage in his career. FOUR STARS --London Evening Standard
Breathtaking...an extraordinary recital by a major talent. --Mojo
Full of soaring lyricism and advanced harmony...this record will only advance his cause. --The Times
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The disc is playing as I write. It's gorgeous. "These are the good days" (track 1) says it all.
I am familiar with Gwillym Simcock's style and soundworld, and for me this album could be by no-one else. It starts up-beat and almost funky, but is more often wistfully languid and soulful, Although his sleevenote says most of the music was "composed" for this album, there is a real sense of improvisation playing a major part, which is totally in keeping with this wonderful musician. I keep picking up hints of "And then she was gone" - one of Gwilym's most memorable melodies to date, in track 6 "Can we still be friends?" - but this is not a criticism; it just places the music as that of the artist alone. Gwilym Simcock has a rare ability to bring to being melodies of haunting beauty, without resorting to schmaltz. He rarely strays into the atonal (maybe a bit in track 7, the very improvisatory "Wake-up call"), but certainly runs the gamut of all keys available (piano keys as well as tonal ones!), often in the same piece of music.
Gwilym Simcock is an all-round comsummate musician, steeped in the tradtions not only of jazz but of classical repertoire as well. If you know his work, you will love this album. If you haven't "met" him yet, and you love good music and fabulous piano playing, give this disc a go!
My one tiny, tiny gripe? Half the sleevenote is in English, and half in German, and my very limited German tells me that one is not a translation of the other, but totally different information.
I am familiar with Gwillym Simcock's style and soundworld, and for me this album could be by no-one else. It starts up-beat and almost funky, but is more often wistfully languid and soulful, Although his sleevenote says most of the music was "composed" for this album, there is a real sense of improvisation playing a major part, which is totally in keeping with this wonderful musician. I keep picking up hints of "And then she was gone" - one of Gwilym's most memorable melodies to date, in track 6 "Can we still be friends?" - but this is not a criticism; it just places the music as that of the artist alone. Gwilym Simcock has a rare ability to bring to being melodies of haunting beauty, without resorting to schmaltz. He rarely strays into the atonal (maybe a bit in track 7, the very improvisatory "Wake-up call"), but certainly runs the gamut of all keys available (piano keys as well as tonal ones!), often in the same piece of music.
Gwilym Simcock is an all-round comsummate musician, steeped in the tradtions not only of jazz but of classical repertoire as well. If you know his work, you will love this album. If you haven't "met" him yet, and you love good music and fabulous piano playing, give this disc a go!
My one tiny, tiny gripe? Half the sleevenote is in English, and half in German, and my very limited German tells me that one is not a translation of the other, but totally different information.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
"Nimble Fingers" doesn't quite define him! Gwilym Simcock
is a pianist with twenty fingers (or so it seems) and power
to spare! His new album 'Good Days At Schloss Elmau' finds
him playing on and around and inside the keyboard with
gleeful abandon, controlled fury and delicate whimsicality.
There are eight pieces in the set and given time to work
their magic it is hard to not respond to Mr Simcock's
persuasive musical world-view. This is music which
balances light and dark in equal measure. The rolling
arpeggios of 'Mezzotint', for example, sweep us along
on a tide of ever-evolving melodic mayhem. Although there
is very little overall dynamic development in the piece the
emotional hub of the thematic material holds us spellbound.
The subtle fluid blues of 'Gripper' delivers a mercurially
confident right-hand melody against a shadowy left-hand
ostinato. The resulting tension is beautifully sustained.
There is a wordless song of sorts at work in 'Northern Smiles'.
The percussive melodic lines slip and slide in the air like a
tense conversation between two lovers. The final crescendo builds
into a truly thrilling coda which desolves in the final bars into
an ambiguous and enigmatic resolution. Stirring stuff indeed!
'Can We Still Be Friends' is the longest piece in the collection.
An introspective and deeply melancholy series of reflections whose
reigned-in mixture of tension and affection touches the sublime.
Final track 'Elmau Tage' would not sound out of place among Leos
Janacek's magical solo piano compositions. Fluid, lyrical and
strangely affecting it brings the album to a bitter-sweet close.
Hands in the air please for Mr Simcock's radiant gift!
Highly Recommended.
is a pianist with twenty fingers (or so it seems) and power
to spare! His new album 'Good Days At Schloss Elmau' finds
him playing on and around and inside the keyboard with
gleeful abandon, controlled fury and delicate whimsicality.
There are eight pieces in the set and given time to work
their magic it is hard to not respond to Mr Simcock's
persuasive musical world-view. This is music which
balances light and dark in equal measure. The rolling
arpeggios of 'Mezzotint', for example, sweep us along
on a tide of ever-evolving melodic mayhem. Although there
is very little overall dynamic development in the piece the
emotional hub of the thematic material holds us spellbound.
The subtle fluid blues of 'Gripper' delivers a mercurially
confident right-hand melody against a shadowy left-hand
ostinato. The resulting tension is beautifully sustained.
There is a wordless song of sorts at work in 'Northern Smiles'.
The percussive melodic lines slip and slide in the air like a
tense conversation between two lovers. The final crescendo builds
into a truly thrilling coda which desolves in the final bars into
an ambiguous and enigmatic resolution. Stirring stuff indeed!
'Can We Still Be Friends' is the longest piece in the collection.
An introspective and deeply melancholy series of reflections whose
reigned-in mixture of tension and affection touches the sublime.
Final track 'Elmau Tage' would not sound out of place among Leos
Janacek's magical solo piano compositions. Fluid, lyrical and
strangely affecting it brings the album to a bitter-sweet close.
Hands in the air please for Mr Simcock's radiant gift!
Highly Recommended.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Gwilym Simcock's 'Good Days at Schloss Elmau' (ACT) is his first solo album and mightily impressive it is. His originals, some rumbustious, others more delicate, unfold cleverly, the creative intensity quite palpable. (Peter Vacher, JazzUK)
[I know his style would certainly not be out of place in a classical context, but shouldn't this album be findable under jazz, either as well as or instead of? RT)
[I know his style would certainly not be out of place in a classical context, but shouldn't this album be findable under jazz, either as well as or instead of? RT)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fabulous pianist
For me this pianist was an exciting new discovery, having always been a Keith Jarrett fan I was recommended to listen to him and was lucky enough to actually see him at St. Read more
Published 5 months ago by big A
It grew on me
I have become very fond of this CD. Gwilym Simcock's work keeps evolving, so don't expect his latest release to be "more of the same" - however good that was. Read more
Published 5 months ago by PGH
Inspired
I came across Gwilym Simcock whilst watching the Andrew Marr Show on the BBC.
He was the guest musician at the end of the show. Read more
He was the guest musician at the end of the show. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Sheila
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