Shuffle. Play. Listen. The fourth issue of the PENTATONE OXINGALE series. An out of the box double SACD album with works for cello and piano, performed by cellist Matt Haimovitz and pianist Christopher O’Riley, including a booklet containing an interview by way of liner notes. One of the discs contains classical music and the other contains pop music, arranged for cello and piano by Christopher O’Riley.

Which brings the interviewer in the booklet to the following question:
“…continuing on this idea of polyvalence, like it or not, people and fans are going to be focusing on this aspect of it.”

Matt Haimovitz: “Well, we’ve been discussing this for months, actually. When we’re in concert we go between Stravinsky and Radiohead, and then John McLaughlin and then some Bach and Ravel. But for us it’s part of the same trajectory, and it fits seamlessly and naturally in a program. For me, a classical listener will be interested in Radiohead or any of the tunes we’re playing on the pop side. I think what we’re doing has a sincerity to it. We’re getting to the spirit of it. We’re translating it in a very different way than the original, and I think they would appreciate that there are some complex things going on contrapuntally, harmonically and lyrically. There’s a richness there.”