Fanny Ansleme

Fanny Azzuro’s piano opens up her world and, with her keyboard, she follows all the paths which allow her to unlock her craving for repertoires, encounters and experiences.

De nos jours, il est rare qu’une approche nouvelle puisse rafraîchir notre façon d’écouter une œuvre célèbre. Lorsque cela se produit, c’est presque toujours grâce à un regard en arrière : instruments d’époque, tempéraments historiques, traités musicaux redécouverts… Fanny Vicens a fait le chemin inverse. Elle a l’audace de jouer les Variations Goldberg sur un instrument datant de plus d’un siècle après l’écriture de l’œuvre. Son interprétation n’est cependant pas une adaptation, mais un transfert, une translittération qui est entièrement fidèle au texte. Vicens se trouve sur un chemin qui regarde dans deux directions, chacune étant le miroir de l’autre : l’œuvre agit pour révéler l’instrument, et la nature de l’instrument reflète les intentions du compositeur, qui déclare explicitement que sa partition est destinée à un clavecin à deux claviers. La spécification de Bach est liée aux fréquentes superpositions et croisements de mains de l’œuvre, et une exécution à l’accordéon, avec ses claviers stéréophoniques, permet de démontrer la réalité sonore spatialisée inhérente à l’écriture contrapuntique de Bach.

In this day and age it’s rare that a novel approach can refresh our way of listening to a famous work. When this does happen, it’s almost always due to a backwards glance : period instruments, historic temperaments, rediscovered musical treatises… Fanny Vicens has gone in the opposite direction.

Legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman made Fanny and Alexander (Fanny och Alexander) as his swan song, and it is his most autobiographical film, a masterpiece combining his trademark melancholy and emotional intensity with a surprising joyfulness and sensuality. The Criterion Collection is proud to present together both versions of this great work: the theatrical release, winner of the 1984 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and, for the first time on home video in the U.S., the original five-hour television cut. Also included is Bergman’s own feature-length documentary The Making of Fanny and Alexander (Dokument Fanny och Alexander), offering a unique glimpse into his creative process.

Are you ready to hear the best live band of the early ‘70s? We at Real Gone Music have been privileged and proud to release Fanny’s four classic Reprise albums, each a tuneful testament as to why they were the first all-female band signed to a major label.

Two young Swedish children experience the many comedies and tragedies of their family, the Ekdahls.

After eight years of performing together, the SpiriTango Quartet nowproposes mind-blowing original versions which are almost transgressive. They bring a freshness and a novelty which goes beyond the scope of traditional tango. Indeed most of the pieces on the album are French works from modern-day composers, adding another dash of boldness. Such was SpiriTango’s original aim: to assert themselves with a great deal of personal inspiration.