The Paris Pieces

Paris Brass Band recently put the finishing touches to their forthcoming CD release which features the music of composer Thierry Deleruyelle. The recording project was inspired by former MD Florent Didier and Band President Dominique Collin, and has finally come to fruition under present MD Laurent Douvre.

Forever to be remembered as the composer of the catchy 5/4 theme for the TV series Mission: Impossible, the very definition of jazzy intrigue, Lalo Schifrin actually established himself early on as a versatile, well-grounded composer and pianist adept at bebop, Latin sounds, and straight classical composition. He has written several concert works, but the bulk of his effort accompanies television shows and movies.

Forever to be remembered as the composer of the catchy 5/4 theme for the TV series Mission: Impossible, the very definition of jazzy intrigue, Lalo Schifrin actually established himself early on as a versatile, well-grounded composer and pianist adept at bebop, Latin sounds, and straight classical composition. He has written several concert works, but the bulk of his effort accompanies television shows and movies.

Bohuslav Martinu was a violinist himself, yet the piano colour in many of his symphonic scores is his actual signature. The two instruments are assigned solo roles in the Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra (1953), commissioned by Benno and Sylvia Rabinof, who duly premiered it in May 1954.

With 'Paris 1884-1959', his first record with Aparté, Florian Billot gives us the soul of a city of which he is the pure musical result: he studied with Michel Béroff at the great institution common to almost all composers on this album, the Conservatoire de Paris, from 2002. From the romanticism of Franck, to the enlightening appeal to sensuality of Debussy, through the clear writting of Henri Dutilleux's 'Sonate', Florian Billot leads us to French musical treasure. 'Pavane pour une infante défunte' and 'Improvisation n°15, Hommage à Edith Piaf' by Francis Poulenc, end the disc with a heartfelt hommage from one of the Six to his friend. Florian Billot offers a subtle and comforting musical interpretation, highlighting the colours of Parisian life in the early 20th century.

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The death of Henri Dutilleux on 22 May 2013 robbed the musical world of one of its most distinctive voices. Dutilleux was renowned for his exquisite craftsmanship and feel for instrumental colour, as well as for an extraordinary generosity of spirit that was invariably reflected in his music. Indeed, pianist Akanè Makita describes Dutilleux as a 'generous, sensitive man' who, when the artists involved in this recording wrote to him to tell him about the project, replied to say how 'greatly touched' and 'moved' he was. This warm and unexpected response from such an eminent composer inspired the musicians to put their all into the recording; the fact that it was completed on the day of Dutilleux's death makes it all the more fitting a tribute to him. The chamber works featured on this disc demonstrate Dutilleux's superb command of instrumental timbre – as flautist Andrea Oliva says, 'Dutilleux is brilliant at custom-designing the music to suit the specific characteristics of each instrument'. These are highly demanding pieces that exploit the possibilities of the instruments to the full – all can be considered milestones in the repertoire of their respective instruments.

Dandrieu’s Premier Livre de Pièces d’Orgue was printed a year after the composer died in 1738. It contains six suites of pieces in differing church tones, each followed by six versets suitable for performance under the canticle Magnificat.
While the Magnificat verses have a logical sequence, the other movements in the suites are somewhat haphazardly planned. Even setting aside the Pascal hymn in the Premier Suite, the remaining pieces have no apparent order, perhaps reflecting a desire to make the publication as generally useful as possible. s.