Tuba Carnival

Tuba Carnival. The trouble with surprises from BIS is that people are not very surprised any more because they have, so to speak, learnt to expect them! But this new disc may turn the tide again. Surely nobody ever expected to hear the tuba played like this. Somebody must have forgotten to tell Øystein Baadsvik that the tuba can't do everything! And in all likelihood, this mistake will be impossible to repair - there is little chance that anyone would be able to catch up with him in order to tell him now!

This collection of pieces-you-never-thought-you'd-hear-on-the-tuba runs the gamut from Vivaldi's view of winter to Monti's Csárdás, from the embouchure-defying to the luscious. When you think that you have heard everything - and are still trying to decide whether you really did hear what you remember hearing - Øystein Baadsvik adds a piece of his own, Fnugg, proving that there really is nothing that can't be expressed on the tuba if one happens to have this level of skill, communicative passion and musicality. Fnugg (Norwegian for something as weightless as a snowflake) is an improvisation with elements of the Australian Aboriginal instrument didgeridoo and Norwegian folk music, using multiphonics (to sing and play simultaneously) and Baadsvik's own invention "Lip Beat".

Unless you are Norwegian or a tuba-freak or both you will probably not yet have heard of Øystein Baadsvik. But you will be hearing a lot more about him in future. He started playing the tuba at the age of fifteen and immediately decided to explore the tuba's possibilities as a solo instrument. After winning a national competition for soloists at the age of eighteen, within the space of two years he had made his own programmes for Norwegian Radio and had appeared as a soloist with most of Norway's professional symphony orchestras. His international career began with two prizes at the Concours International d'Exécution Musicale (CIEM) in Geneva in 1991. Today he is in great demand as a performer and lecturer all over the world, and he is unique in being a full-time tuba soloist.