duo tuba & harp: Better Without Words
Songs and arias for tuba and harp
Songs and arias are something wonderful, no question. If it weren’t for the lyrics sometimes. With Wagner, for example. But also elsewhere.
Instrumentalists have always been inclined to call singing a disturbing element of these two genres. And so Andreas Martin Hofmeir and Andreas Mildner have taken this circumstance as an opportunity to help various songs to achieve true brilliance by omitting the lyrics. The brilliance of course that is only possible through the logical combination of their two instruments: namely tuba and harp. But so that you know what happens in the pieces, the artists have briefly sketched the scenes in the booklet, and that, as experience has shown, is very funny …
Rank 12 in the German classical music charts
Since April 2020 the CD of the tuba-harp duo has been in the Top 20 of the German classical music charts. The CD Better without words entered there at position 12.
Schmid/Hofmeir Hochtief GmbH: Stradihumpa
Violin & tuba – unique!
Dreams are dreams – but this thing really happened. The violin and the tuba could not be more different as instruments, but the biographies of Benjamin Schmid and Andreas Martin Hofmeir have some similarities: both have been award-winners at the ECHO classics (Hofmeir was the first tuba player to win one); both are professors at the renowned Salzburg Mozarteum; and both are equally at home in classical music and in jazz. Their repertoire ranges widely: alongside well-known but re-images classical music pieces the focal point of their programme consists of original compositions for this unherad combination.
on the way
containing the following:
Jörg Duda – Tuba Concerto Nr.1
John Williams – Tuba Concerto
Jörg Duda – Matkalla
Roland Szentpali – Very good morning
Press:
“Andreas Martin Hofmeir proves that one is able to play as virtuously on a tuba as on any classical solo instrument. Fascinating, how exactly he articulates coloraturas. He „sings“ on the tuba, producing a warm, soft sound.” (5 stars)
Münchner Merkur, 20.3.2014
“Without any doubt Andreas Hofmeir is one of the today’s greatest tubists and given his musical capacity as well as his personality capable to be a true ambassador for his instrument. The whole CD depicts a plea for the tuba – and, almost as an aside, an easy listening, flowing cheerfully, colourfully, flowerily, romantically and opulently, irresistibly taking the listener on Andreas Hofmeir’s journey.”
Clarino, 04/2014
“With him playing so wonderfully, Andreas Hofmeir turns everyone spontaneously into tuba fans.“
NDR Kultur, 27.3.2014
Why not? – Tuba and Harp in Duet!
Why not?
We know what you are thinking: Why in the world would you pack a tuba and a harp into a duo? How can that work? But just look; you have, after all, married, right? You see, evolution itself is based on the successful combination of seemingly incompatible extremes.
Unfortunately the experts are doubtful whether the alliance of tuba and harp will be similarly successful as husband and wife or even excel over all the other duos in existence, but the fruitfulness of this instrumental marriage shall be proved once and for all with this CD.
Primal Recordings for Tuba
Primal Recordings for Tuba
Whoever is looking for sonorous abysses next to which one can pleasantly shudder, or likes scintillating hummingbirds the size of an albatross – will feel at home with the GENUIN debut CD of tuba player Andreas Martin Hofmeir. The highly virtuoso prize winner of the German Music Competition handles his weighty instrument so light-footedly that some violinists will be envious – from the lowest depths to a tenor brilliance. In this production undertaken in cooperation with the German Music Council, he presents witty, stimulating works by Jörg Duda, Gisbert Näther and Kjell Roikjer – all of them premiere recordings. An absolute must for all friends of great breath and flashing metal!
Press:
“These Primal Recordings must and shall not only be heard by Tuba players. Pioneers open new ways not only for themselves but for everyone.”
Clarino, 05/2012
“Unusual but true: Andreas Martin Hofmeir, award winner of the German Music Competition 2005, is bringing out large the tuba as a solo instrument on his first CD Recording.”
klassik.com, 19. April 2012