Guillaume II

With Malinconia, Yan Levionnois and Guillaume Bellom invite us to a musical exploration of nostalgia. From Debussy to Piazzolla, via Webern, Fauré, Janacek, Bartok, Sibelius and Liszt, this album also offers a journey through the 20th century. Through pieces testifying to the personal vision of this state by eight composers, this programme offers a juxtaposition of styles. Rich in contrasts, it offers an immediately perceptible diversity in which the works illuminate each other.

Pianist Guillaume de Chassy insists that Silences is inspired by the example of clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre's late-1950s trio recordings. To be sure, like those records, this album is marked by intimacy and introspection, a strong clarinet sound and no drummer. But Silences, recorded at a French abbey, doesn't sound much like Giuffre's records—nor indeed, like much of jazz, at first blush. It's not at first clear just what this piano-clarinet-bass formation is up to. The helpfully titled "Birth of a Trio" provides clues. It shows just how much this music shares with jazz—improvisation, first of all; and empathy, the musicians listening closely to each other, as for example when de Chassy's piano sidles up to Thomas Savy's soaring clarinet.

Entre le quintette et le quatuor de Saint-Saëns, il y a toute une vie de compositeur, des joies, des douleurs, des idées, des motifs, la construction d'une existence et d'une esthétique. C'est cette substance éminemment sensible que le Quatuor Girard, une des formations françaises les plus prometteuses du moment, accompagné du jeune pianiste Guillaume Bellom, a voulu saisir dans ce nouveau disque B Records, enregistré dans l'atmosphère douce et feutrée de la Fondation Singer-Polignac.

Ivan Gobry est docteur ès Lettres. Il a enseigné pendant 27 ans à l’Université de Reims et parallèlement à l’Institut catholique de Paris. Auteur de plus de cent ouvrages, il a participé à de multiples émissions et conférences radiophoniques et reçu de très nombreux prix, dont cinq de l’Académie française. …

'Classical and jazz music are my two'musical lands that I ve been striding along the boundaries for a long time. The Concerto for piano in which the soloist improvises beside a symphony orchestra represents a decisive step in my career. This album is dedicated to the pianist Brigitte Engerer with whom I had the honour to collaborate with for 4 years and who remains a living source of inspiration and enthusiasm.' Guillaume de Chassy After 9 albums to his credit, Traversées is the first symphonic album of Guillaume de Chassy. Recorded in the mythical studio La Chaux-de-Fonds in Switzerland, it s composed of two parts…