Aymond Lefevre

Again evoking his time as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, Canadian pianist Alain Lefèvre releases a second album of French music. Paris Memories, which follows My Paris Years, comprises music by Franck, Debussy and the man who taught Alain Lefèvre composition: Pierre Max Dubois. A pupil of the prolific and multi-faceted Darius Milhaud, Dubois (1930-1995) wrote music that is full of spirit and wit. Paris Memories culminates in a four-movement piano sonata by Dubois, composed in 1984 and dedicated to none other than Alain Lefèvre. “While a student at the Paris Conservatoire I had memorable encounters with great figures in the world of music,” says the pianist. “Of particular significance was the opportunity to get to know my teacher Pierre Max Dubois, and I’m profoundly moved to have finally been able to record his piano sonata.”

The instrumental smash "Ame Câline" vaulted conductor and arranger Raymond LeFevre to the front ranks of the easy listening renaissance that followed the commercial vogue for stereophonic sound. Born in Calais, France on November 20, 1929, LeFevre studied flute as a child and at 16 entered Paris' Conservatoire National de Musique, moonlighting as a jazz pianist in local clubs and cabarets. After a stint behind jazz bandleader Hubert Rostaing, LeFevre joined conductor Bernard Hilda's Club des Champs-Elysées orchestra. He established himself as a composer and arranger during a lengthy tenure as a Barclay Records staffer, concurrently serving six years behind Egyptian born singer Dalida and in 1957 scoring the first of more than a dozen films with director Guillaume Radot, Fric-Frac en Dentelles…

Jean Xavier Lefèvre was chief clarinettist in the Paris Opera for many years. As a composer, he produced a succession of chamber music and concertante pieces that are in every way worthy of the attention now being paid to them.

Devienne was a professor of flute at the Conservatory of Music of Paris and bassoonist in the orchestra of the grand opera theatre of Paris in 1796. In these pieces Devienne demonstrates his mastery of gallant conversation with an admirably light touch. In these works it is the bassoon and the violin that shape the musical events. Laurent Lefèvre won the Premier Grand Prix at the Concours International d'Exécution musicale of Geneva. He is the first bassoon soloist in the orchestra of the Opéra national de Paris. He has made solo appearances in many orchestras and festivals in Germany, Swizterland, Argentina and Belgium.