Horizons: Live at Festival PAAX GNP

The Impossible Orchestra began life as a virtual, COVID-era project in 2020, but this live album from 2023 shows the ensemble morphing into a real-time concert entity. Three concertos are presented, all with a distinctive Latin-American flavour. Argentinian composer Omar Massa is the soloist in his own Concerto for Bandoneon and Orchestra, mining the darker side of the instrument’s soundworld in the central “Prayer” movement, and peeling off quick-fire licks in the “Tango Scherzo” finale. Ilhas Concertantes (Concertante Islands) showcases the seven-string guitar virtuoso Yamandu Costa in a piece co-written with fellow guitarist Sérgio Assad. The swirling, rhythmically spiky finale is a particular highlight. Paquito D’Rivera’s The Journey pairs clarinet and cello with the erhu, a two-stringed bowed instrument from China heard to evocative effect in “Rice”, the middle movement. The Mexican conductor Alondra de la Parra draws sharply characterful playing from the Impossible Orchestra in all three concertos.