Christoph Brückner - Melodies at an Exhibition (2022)

"Pictures at an Exhibition" ("Melodies at an Exhibition") - this title, with its obvious allusion to Modest Mussorgsky's cycle "Pictures at an Exhibition," says a lot about how Christoph Brückner's new album is structured. Brückner, who usually sits down at church organs, reaches for the piano and Hammond organ here to deliver a special variety of sounds and improvisations with the two instruments.

The choice of his instruments on this album may come as a surprise. But it fits into the musical work of Brückner, who knows no boundaries. This also applies to the musical genres that simply do not interest him. Whenever he likes a melody, he incorporates it into his playing - whether classical or rock, spiritual or secular. Because the basic melodic and harmonic substance is incredibly similar across genre boundaries anyway.

Accordingly, the models for his improvisations are also very different this time: church songs, music by Beethoven or Dylan and much more has found its way in here. Just as Modest Mussorgski uses his "Promenade" as a recurring moment in the aforementioned cycle, Brückner repeatedly plays a ragtime on the piano to loosen things up. Listeners to the new album can look forward to a fascinating and relaxed journey through an exhibition of wonderful melodies and improvisations that knows no boundaries between epochs or genres.