Michel Legrand Les Parapluies de Cherbourg

Two icons of French song – Natalie Dessay and Michel Legrand – follow the huge worldwide success of their album Entre Elle et Lui with a DVD of the very special concert on the 11th June 2014 at the Orangerie of the Château de Versailles. This is a unique collaboration from two giants of French music. The CD release in 2013 was hotly anticipated and received great critical acclaim upon its release. Natalie Dessay brings her lyrical voice and fresh interpretations to a selection of some of Michel Legrand’s best-loved songs including La Valse des Lilas, Les moulins de mon cœur (Windmills of Your Mind), Duo de Guy et Geneviève, Papa Can You Hear Me and many more.

Michel Legrand, Jessye Norman - I Was Born In Love With You (2000)
Classical/Piano/Vocal/Soprano | Label: Philips | MP3 CBR 320kbps | 64:22 | 147 MB

The material on this disc ranges from the smoky melancholy of "Je vivrai sans toi" ("I Will Live Without You") to the hyperbolic camp of "Celui-là" ("The One") but mainly hovers in the realm of anguished longing. Jessye Norman uses the material to show off the extraordinary range and flexibility of her voice, and slips between a pure, almost boyish sound, and a full-throated luxurious warble with ease. But idiomatically she may not be to everyone's taste: for the most part this is the musical territory inhabited by the Billie Holidays of this world, and Norman's technique puts her at a disadvantage. Michel Legrand in his role as pianist is another matter, however. His carefully nuanced accompaniments flow with improvisatory ease, and inspire some great moments from the bass and drums.

Laurent Korcia - Doubles Jeux
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 276 MB | Full Artwork: 174 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Naive # V 5066 | Country/Year: France 2006
Genre: Classical, Jazz | Style: Romantic, Early 20th Century

This recital disc has an unusual title that points the way toward an unusual program. "Doubles jeux" might be translated as "double play" (no baseball music, unfortunately), suggesting not only that this is a program of duets – for violin with piano, cello, guitar, contrabass, bandoneón, or, on the last two tracks, voice – but also the fusion of jazz and classical repertory. Violinist Laurent Korcia is not unique in having attempted the latter double play, but he pulls it off here in an unusually varied and delightful way. (…) Like so many of the releases from France's Naïve label, this one is equally successful in reimagining established repertoire and in superbly executing the new concept.

Jacques Demy's 1964 masterpiece is a pop-art opera, or, to borrow the director's own description, a film in song. This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher (Nino Castelnuovo), a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery (a luminous Catherine Deneuve), an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant (Marc Michel, reprising his role from Demy's masterful debut, Lola). A completely sung movie, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is closest in form to a cinematic opera. Composer Michel Legrand composed the score, modeling it around the patterns of everyday conversation.

Michel Legrand, who has been loved around the world since his death in 2019, celebrates the 90th anniversary of his birth on February 25, 2022. Musician of many classic films such as "The Umbrellas of Cherbourg," "The Girls of Rochefort," and "The Skin of the Donkey," Legrand was a music legend who broke down the boundaries between jazz, symphonic music, musical comedy, and popular music, and a three-time Academy Award winner who, over the decades He has left behind many works with themes that remain in people's memories. A tribute album to Legrand's music, "Legrand (Re)Imagined," will be released by Decca Records.