MICHAEL HOPPE, TIM WHEATER
The Yearning Romances for Alto Flute
(p) (c) 1993 Michael Hoppe
12tks/52mins

When you take this CD and open its booklet, you see the faces of beautiful women. They are all so different - and so similar. Eyes with a bit of sadness, delicate lineaments, gracious postures, and some unbelievably distinguished jewelry. As if a photographer's objective embedded those women just yesterday, making them to stop for a moment in front of the camera.

The gone epoch returns to life for a while with those photos and the miraculous, charming music. It is here, in the eyes and faces of the amazing women, in the sound of contemplative keyboards of Michael Hoppe and refined penetrating flute of Tim Wheater. Due to the music of two remarkable musicians, you can make a journey in time and communicate with the lost past time.

Every romance is a history of somebody's life full of yearning, waiting, passionate moments of earthy love, joyful meetings, and unbearably sad departings… You can feel the life in all its manifestations, and there is everywhere a depth and an inexpressible sadness. Yearning to that woman, to that only Beloved, who is Everything...

Works by Emil Otto Hoppe, Michael's grandfather, which enrich the album "The Yearning" and had been the source of inspiration for each composition, cannot be called just the photos. They are like the paintings, performed by a brilliant master, by a genuine artist: so much the portraits by E.O.Hoppe can tell you. Music of Michael Hoppe and Tim Wheater allows the photos made in the first decades of XX century to come to life and to talk with you. Those women have something to tell us, to share with us. The innermost nooks of their souls are reflected In the photos by E.O.Hoppe, and the music of the album is so intimate and touching, that you just turn to be alone with yourself and start looking into the depth of your own nature, and the hidden feelings are possessing you. Internally intelligent, refined music of Michael Hoppe helps to release your emotions and clear yourself.

This music hasn't to pretend, to masquerade anything. It is open and natural. "The Yearning" are the real feelings...

Serge Kozlovsky