Main Page Of “MIKE OLDFIELD: RUSSIAN PAGE”(in English)
Duo Sonare.
Thomas Offermann & Jens Wagner
They perform
- on historical 19th
century instruments classical-romantic music (Giuliani, Mozart etc) in the authentic
sound and
qualitity of the former guitar virtuosos,
- on modern Spanish
concert guitars works of modern composers ranging from Claude Debussy, Astor
Piazzolla to rock star Frank Zappa, thus making no difference between art and
entertainment; their arrangement for two guitars of Mike Oldfield's Opus One
TUBULAR BELLS attracted world-wide attention and is No.1 of the top-10-list
1996 of WNYC, New York,
- major concertos for two
guitars and orchestra (Rodrigo, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Oldfield etc).
|
Jens Wagner |
Thomas Offermann |
Interview with DUO
SONARE
Roman Davydoff: Hello, Thomas, Thank you for your permission to ask some questions!
Thomas Offermann: Hi Roman, here are Jens and my answers! Thanks for your interest!
Roman Davydoff: I think my first one will be not unusual: There is a lot of different kind of music around the world, why did you
choose to play Tubular Bells? Thomas Offermann: Mike Oldfield is a guitarist and so basically TB is composed from and for the guitar - that makes the
arrangement for 2 classical guitars more logical. It is a big maybe the largest instrumental piece from the 70 s in the rock/pop field and it is connected to one part of our musical influences and roots. We want to present in our repertoire these roots. Roman Davydoff: And what was the most difficult moment for playing in the album?
Thomas Offermann: It was big fun to record our arrangement, it really works. The difficult time was before, to try out many
possibilities and decide how to play the piece. Roman Davydoff: I read you teach a guitar class. By your point of view, what is the optimal age for starting to learn guitar?
Thomas Offermann: The most important thing is a natural start. It can be at any age if the teacher is good, the instrument fits
to the size and if learning the guitar is fun. Some pupils start by the age of seven - as I did (Thomas) - some even with six or five years. But there are also great guitarists around today that started to play the guitar when they were twelve! Roman Davydoff: According to British Classic Rock Jimmi Hendrix is the best guitarist all over the world. And who is the
greatest guitarist to your opinion? Thomas Offermann: Nobody is the best, all are different and it is impossible to judge about this. If a guitarist makes really good
music he is at this moment the best. Jimi Hendrix was, especially in his time, surely one of the most innovative ones. But in every style to us it is more important to be a great artist, a great musician and to have an interesting message. We are not at all interested in fast playing and uninteresting employee kind of people but very much in artists that move us inside. Jimi Hendrix surely was one who did that. Roman Davydoff: Well, back to Tubular Bells, what is your favorite moment (episode, tune or melody) in the album?
Thomas Offermann: The tunes are all great, especially the lyric ones. The Piltdown man section is big fun, making additional to
playing the guitar funny noises of an ancient ape, especially when performing it live on stage! Roman Davydoff: And the last one: what do you think about Mike Oldfield s decision to re-record opus one in 2003?
Thomas Offermann: TB I is the biggest success of Mike, so it is clever to do it again if people really like this. But I believe an
artist should develope. All the best, Thomas and Jens Roman Davydoff: Thank You.
The 29th of August 2002.
CD Cover “Duo Sonare Plays Mike Oldfield’s Opus One Tubular Bells”
© 2000-2002 by Roman Davydoff