Christian Lindberg composer, conductor, trombonist

Helikon Wasp (2003) for conducting trombonist and orchestra (text: composer)
The World of Montuagretta (2001-2002) Concerto for Flute and Chamber Orchestra
Condon Canyon (2000) for trombone and brass quintet
´...Ty solen är uppe!´ (1999) for trombone and male-voice choir (text: A. Strindberg)
Behac Munroh (2004) for trumpet, trombone and orchestra

Christian Lindberg, trombone/voice; Sharon Bezaly, flute; Ole Edvard Antonsen, trumpet; Orphei Drängar/Robert Sund; Stockholms Kammarbrass; São Paulo Symphony Orchestra; Basque National Orchestra/Cristian Mandeal; Svenska Kammarorkestern/Christian Lindberg

BIS-CD-1428 [TT 77 mins]

Here is a Composer's Portrait in the fullest sense. Renowned trombonist Christian Lindberg takes us on an in depth journey through a troubled childhood - a time when his creativity risked destruction - through to his present multi-talented maturity, presented in utmost diversity in this selection of his own compositions.

It really is worth buying for the autobiographical introduction alone. A gifted child obsessed with drawing, all but destroyed by a sadistic disciplinarian teacher whose ridicule stopped him drawing and paining for evermore. Through the Beatles and musical instruments he found eventually a route to “stop being a hooligan”, discovery of Armstrong and Teagarden giving him inroads to classical music and the instrument on which he became world supreme.

Christian Lindberg's compositions collected here are as diverse as you will find of anyone. That Lindberg is a composer at all is little known, certainly was not so by me before receiving this wonderful disc. He appears as “conducting trombonist and narrator” in Helicon Wasp, conductor of a splendid flute concerto with South American inspiration, solo trombonist with brass quintet in their commission, trombonist with choir, and trombonist partnering trumpet in his duo concerto for the Basque National Orchestra, a veritable portrait of a life in music.

Helikon Wasp, to his own poem, tells of many things; a funny little creature, a hater of pseudo-intellectualism who can sing and play – and sting! The flute concerto is a marvelous showcase for Sharon Bezaly, one that would wow a Proms audience and be a worthy centrepiece in a concert anywhere. The choral piece is based on Strindberg (an avid reader, Lindberg bought the 55 thick volumes of Stridberg's complete works, and read every word during the next six months) and with Behac Munroh celebrated his freedom, ‘after exposure to everything from Stockhausen to the Beatles, from Coltrane to Mozart', to write music that “I myself find attractive”!

An endearing character and an absorbing listen from first to last.

Peter Grahame Woolf