Step right up! Step right in… to Little Big Top, the charming debut album from a new quartet led by accordion legend Guy Klucevsek (kloo-SEH-vik) with visionary trumpeter Volker Goetze. This fine compendium of engaging Klucevsek creations that were written over two decades is produced by Goetze, arranged by Klucevsek, and is filled with musical thrills and spills to surprise and delight.

The music of Buxton Orr (b. Glasgow, 1924), was hardly over-exposed during his lifetime but has encountered even more neglect since his death in 1997. This CD takes a step in the right direction, presenting Orr’s mildly modernist, elegant and honest music in first recordings of four of his chamber works for strings.

REVIEW:

All of the performances are passionate, committed and of the highest quality as is the recording which does not get between the performers and the listeners. The music needs to be ‘Listened to’ and, more than once. It is not fashionable, it does not always come out to meet you half way but it is approachable and emotional and has its own strong rewards.

The reason why the disc has taken over a decade to emerge, and I do recall it being mentioned many years ago, is that the company which originally recorded it lost interest and abandoned the project. Well done Toccata for picking up these most valuable pieces

-- MusicWeb International