“We have never done anything like this before”, says Daniel Ottensamer who is clarinettist in Die Wiener Philharmoniker. In June he released a big CD-anthology including seven CD’s together with two friends.

Klassisk bureau has had a talk with Daniel Ottensamer about what it took to make the project happen and what has been the outcome of it. A project that contains both well known, less well known and totally unknown music in many different genres. It has Danish music, too, and a mystery in 16 bars.

The noisy and forced silence during the corona lockdown didn’t get many roses from any part of the society. For Daniel Ottensamer and his friends, however, a total unexpected and huge production of sound appeared out of the paralycing silence. Actually also a new road in their career.

The three friends have known each other for many years and on a daily basis they unfold on top in the exclusive sphere of classical music in different places – Stephen Konc as a violoncellist in Die Berliner Philharmoniker, Daniel Ottensamer with his clarinet in Die Wiener Philharmoniker and Christoph Traxler as a self-employed pianist. But for some years they have been playing together in Philharmonix which is a modern orchestra with a jazzy take.

Besides the music itself an intense enthusiasm and the joy of playing are present at the CD-anthology. Most of all it seems like three happy kids getting a free ride in Disney World for a couple of days. “This project is not work for us. We did it of free will. It is three friends having a good time, as simple as that”, Daniel Ottensamer explains.

Like many other musicians he kept an eye and ear on the huge selection of streamings of classical music during the lock down appearing from official as well as unofficial sources.

“I was not very happy for all the outcomes on the internet – videos from the dining room ect. There was a bad athmosphere unworthy for classical music, and many streamings were not of good quality”, Ottensamer sums up. The three friends chose to do something else.

“We started to dive into the stuff for a clarinet trio. That was only possible because of corona”, Ottensamer concludes.

The all-encompassing silence also provided a bridgehead for a most exceptional efficiency in the trio. “It was eight months of rehearsing and recording”, Daniel Ottensamer corrects as Klassisk bureau was out of contact with the facts in this part. “We bought 35 pieces and asked each other: What do we like? Then rehearsal, rehearsal; every time we started playing a new composer, he or she was always the best! We ended up with 27 pieces, and together they represent a range of different sounds for a clarinet trio”, says Ottensamer. All in all it was not a problem to agree on which music to choose for the CD-box that includes music from 25 different composers.

Every CD is a section in the story about the clarinet trio as an ensemble. The seven CD’s follow the chronology of the history of music and represent composers from many countries. At the same time there is a stylistic theme on every CD. Daniel Ottensamer is the man behind that part.

“We’ve placed Beethoven and Brahms in the beginning of the anthology – the two composers who started and established the music for this constellation. Every CD has its own story to tell and I’ve spent much time to arrange each of them”, says Ottensamer. It has been the aim for the trio to mix and keep a good balance between well known and unknown music.

“The last CD is Northern and British and has a very interesting sound. Though, it takes time to get to know this type of music,” Ottensamer assesses. Besides the newest music there are also works by Robert Kahn, Friedrich Cerha and Carl Frühling – music that might be a new experience for most listeners. On CD nr. 6 you find Danish music by Per Nørgaard in his work “Spell”.

Also, the trio has dared to go to the limit of what is technically possible especially in Friedrich Cerhas work. “Not only does he go to the limit. He tries to cross the limit but not in a stupid way,” Daniel Ottensamer puts it. He adds that for him personally music must stay musically. “If music is only sounds it is not enough. Cerha is also very modern but his music is still musically”, Ottensamer points out.