Jaques Bergier

Quiconque s'intéresse à l'occulte a sans aucun doute déjà entendu parler, au moins entendu parler, de Jacques Bergier. Né en 1912 et mort en 1978, Bergier, de son vrai nom Yakov Mikhailovitch Berger, était un scientifique (ingénieur chimiste), journaliste, résistant, espion et écrivain français d'origine ukrainienne, que les Tintinophiles connaissent via sa dépiction, dans "Vol 714 Pour Sydney", sous le nom de Mik Ezdanitoff. …

Le mystère est partout, permanent, proche ou lointain… Dans le bref fait divers qui relate la disparition d'un paysan du Tennessee - qu'on ne retrouvera jamais -, dans la nouvelle spectaculaire d'un navire, d'un avion "perdu" corps et biens. Ni épave ni cadavre. Rien. Mystère des champs de fouilles où l'homme est en quête de son passé : dans les nécropoles étrusques, les grands prêtres parlent aux archéologues à travers vingt-sept siècles…

You're forgiven if you don't remember these guys. Most people don't. The product of bad timing more than anything else, Cafe Jacques came along just as Punk/New Wave exploded in the late '70s and totally redefined the musical landscape. Too bad, because this band was talented. They played a smart, jazz-tinged pop with a touch of prog (some UK prog players of the era helped out, including Phil Collins) that went all over the musical map…

In 1905, three musical friends who would later become giants as soloists came together to form a piano trio. After their initial successes, they reserved time each year from their hectic individual careers to meet in London or Paris to play chamber music. Their musical relationship lasted another twenty-nine years, with the three playing together for the last time in 1934. Although their repertoire was relatively small (only thirty-three works were programmed by the trio during their entire existence), they left behind a handful of recordings, that, more than seventy years on, are still benchmarks, and continue to garner enough sales to keep them alive in the catalog.

It’s a measure of the paucity of recordings of the Cortot-Thibaud-Casals trio – itself a direct result of their deliberately limited repertoire – that this latest release in Naxos’s series has only one performance by the Trio itself. This all-Beethoven affair presents the Archduke Trio, supported by Thibaud and Cortot’s Kreutzer and the only recording ever made by Casals and Cortot as a duo, the Mozart Variations.

Francesco Mancini’s output includes 29 operas, oratorios, more than 200 secular cantatas, and instrumental music, often written for flute, cello, and continuo. Here, the sonatas are interpreted by oboe and organ; they are part of a series of 12 sonatas originally dedicated to the English Consul of Naples, John Fleetwood.

Superior historical music making by three masters of the genre. The sound is clear but typical of its period. The transfers (from 78RPM recordings) are really amazing.