Ari Cohen Mann - VORTEX (2025) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Welcome to the VORTEX! This album is a sonic journey that draws you in through charm and foolery, spinning and whirling you toward the playful, vibrant, haunting, and contemplative. I hope you take the opportunity to start at the very beginning of the album and let me lead you to and through the heart of the VORTEX. Thank you for joining me on this adventure of expression with what I feel have been under-used instruments as solo voices in chamber music: the oboe and English horn. The works featured on this album showcase the oboe and English horn as capable of marking and enchanting the soul of both the listener and performer.

We begin with fragments of themes from Italian Baroque music, woven into Stravinsky’s Neo-classical score for the ballet Pulcinella. The ballet tells a sweet and romantic tale of love punctuated by the antics of the bumbling title character, and it is this mischievous spirit that Stravinsky evokes in his musical rendering. Ari wrote the oboe part of this transcription and collaborated with bassoonist and arranger Cornelia Sommer as they meticulously parsed through details of articulation and colour, carefully resolving note errors and other inconsistencies from the various versions of this music. Their goal is to reflect the piece’s original spirit while immersing themselves in the intersection of Baroque period elegance and Stravinsky’s tongue-in-cheek musical style.

TRACKLIST

1. Ari Cohen Mann, Benjamin Smith, Kevin Day, Daniel Ramjattan - Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite, K034b: I. Sinfonia (Arr. for Oboe & Piano by Ari Cohen Mann & Cornelia Sommer)
2. Ari Cohen Mann, Benjamin Smith, Kevin Day, Daniel Ramjattan - Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite, K034b: II. Serenata (Arr. for Oboe & Piano by Ari Cohen Mann & Cornelia Sommer)
3. Ari Cohen Mann, Benjamin Smith, Kevin Day, Daniel Ramjattan - Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite, K034b: V. Toccata (Arr. for Oboe & Piano by Ari Cohen Mann & Cornelia Sommer)
4. Ari Cohen Mann, Benjamin Smith, Kevin Day, Daniel Ramjattan - Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite, K034b: VI. Gavotta con due variazioni (Arr. for Oboe & Piano by Ari Cohen Mann & Cornelia Sommer)
5. Ari Cohen Mann, Benjamin Smith, Kevin Day, Daniel Ramjattan - Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite, K034b: VIII. Minuetto - Finale (Arr. for Oboe & Piano by Ari Cohen Mann & Cornelia Sommer)
6. Ari Cohen Mann, Benjamin Smith, Kevin Day, Daniel Ramjattan - Higdon: Aria for Oboe & Piano
7. Ari Cohen Mann, Benjamin Smith, Kevin Day, Daniel Ramjattan - Day: VORTEX
8. Ari Cohen Mann, Benjamin Smith, Kevin Day, Daniel Ramjattan - Sharman: Famous Last Words
9. Ari Cohen Mann, Benjamin Smith, Kevin Day, Daniel Ramjattan - Coulthard: The Enchanted Island
10. Ari Cohen Mann, Benjamin Smith, Kevin Day, Daniel Ramjattan - Nickel: English Horn Sonata No. 1: I. Adagio
11. Ari Cohen Mann, Benjamin Smith, Kevin Day, Daniel Ramjattan - Nickel: English Horn Sonata No. 1: II. Adagio
12. Ari Cohen Mann, Benjamin Smith, Kevin Day, Daniel Ramjattan - Nickel: English Horn Sonata No. 1: III. Allegro
13. Ari Cohen Mann, Benjamin Smith, Kevin Day, Daniel Ramjattan - Morlock: Verdigris for Oboe and Guitar



Thanks to the Original customer.