Julien Gernay Vinophony

Rahona is the meeting of two guitarists with very different yet complementary roots: Joel Rabesolo and Julien Marga. Even if Jazz is always present when the quartet is playing, we can also find elements of rock, African music, or contemporary music. A moment of lyrical and poetic music served by four excellent musicians.

Julien Daian is back with a new opus, “Suppose it is butter”, an enigmatic quote lifted from Gertrude Stein that sets the tone for the wildcard of French Jazz’s latest iconoclastic, trailblazing musical journey.

Dutch cellist Lidy Blijdorp has long been in love with the music of Ravel, the magical sound world, the colours and imagery he conjures.

Julien lives alone with his cat. He dreams of Marie, and a few minutes later, he sees her on the street and makes a date. He asks her to move in with him, and she does. Her boyfriend is dead, the rest of her past a mystery.

Victor Julien-Laferrière, the very first winner of the 2017 Queen Elisabeth Competition for Cellists in Brussels, joined Alpha Classics in 2019 for several recordings.

Bleu Jane starts in a confused flurry of percussion, as if to scramble your brain in order to clear it in preparation for what’s to come. After a piano flourish the song settles down into a slow-burn David Lynchian number, complete with Sagot’s deep, mesmerizing gallic voice. It’s such a thrill that you think surely this is the prime cut and there’s nowhere else to go. Think again.

Julien lives alone with his cat. He dreams of Marie, and a few minutes later, he sees her on the street and makes a date. He asks her to move in with him, and she does. Her boyfriend is dead, the rest of her past a mystery. Although they quickly seem to fall in love, she sometimes pulls away suddenly from Julien, is distant, and spends the night in a hotel. She also dreads something imminent and warns Julien that if he missteps, he will lose her and all memory of her. Julien responds by digging into her past: what explains her remodeling an upstairs garret room, her nightly dreams, her fears? What can Julien, now desperately in love, do when he learns why? Can either rescue the other?

Charles Péguy and Julien Joubert have at least two things in common – they were both born in Orléans (separated by exactly a century) and both of them have a special relationship with the figure of Joan of Arc. At the age of 24, Julien Joubert read Jeanne d'Arc, a play written in 1897 by Charles Péguy – also aged 24 – who had just gained his teaching diploma. Péguy’s drama awakened in Julien Joubert the strong desire to compose. His first idea was to set it as a musical comedy, a crazy notion that he soon abandoned. A few years later, however, a kind of condensed version of this idea emerged, entitled Chansons pour Jeanne. It was another unfinished project that eventually gave birth to Elle pleurait… (Stabat Mater) – the commission for a religious musical work for Holy Week 2003. As an atheist, Joubert was not sure he wanted to embark on a piece of this kind; but reading the Latin poem of the Stabat Mater together with the Passion narrative that Péguy always included in his Mystère de la charité de Jeanne d'Arc (to which the poet had added 48 pages just at the moment of signing it off for printing) motivated the composer to complete the project, even though the commission had already been abandoned by its sponsor. Here we present Elle pleurait… (Stabat Mater) in two versions: one with Charles Péguy’s text, and one in a purely musical setting.