Martine, Numéro 11, 18, 20, 24, 27, 28, 30, 31, 33, 36 38, 41 45 et 50

“Tzimtzum”: a Hebrew word describing the first step God takes in the process of creation, a contraction of His infinite light into a space ripe for a new realm.

Berlin Stories is the first in a new series of recordings by the Trio Gaspard, based on different cultural capitals and composers associated with them. The album features three composers who lived and worked in Berlin for a period of their lives ? for different reasons and in varying circumstances.

1694: the first French opera composed by a woman is premiered at the Academie royale de musique. The fateful destiny of the Greek lovers, driven to blindness and horror by the gods: Cephalus will kill Procris, whom he believes to be unfaithful, and himself… A virtuoso harpsichordist much appreciated by Louis XIV, Elisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre chose to become a composer at a time when such freedom was virtually unheard of for a woman. Her gamble paid off, with six performances and the admiration of posterity: this flamboyant work has finally been brought back to the public by Reinoud van Mechelen.

Hervé Niquet lässt Ariane et Bacchus (1696) wieder auferstehen, wobei er zum ersten Mal die exakte Besetzung und Aufstellung des Orchesters der Pariser Oper von 1700 verwendet und uns somit eine historisch informierte Version dieser Tragédie en musique von Marin Marais liefert. Marin Marais wurde 1676 Gambenspieler an der Académie Royale de Musique, als sein Mentor Lully mit seinem Werk Atys dort einen großen Erfolg feierte.

Blind from the age of two, a prodigiously gifted student, Jean Langlais (1907-91) produced an immense quantity of music. His organ works alone exceed in number those of of JS Bach. Many have hardly ever been performed. Perhaps not more than half a dozen works are regularly played or recorded today, which is what makes this new complete survey of his organ music – the first ever attempted on record – both unique and invaluable, as the authoritative document of a high point in the distinguished lineage of the French organ heritage.

Though chamber music is incontestably the least well-known component of his corpus, Camille Saint-Saëns was a master of the genre, leaving us with a large collection of works. We may think of Saint-Saëns as a conservative and very academic composer. And yet, we would be well advised to remember that he was, in fact, a pioneer. Even as a young man, Saint-Saëns delved into chamber music instead of opera, the conventional form for an up-and- coming musician. He composed chamber music throughout his life - through to the final woodwind sonatas in 1921 - restoring luster to the form which, in France, had been all but forgotten.