Baptiste Trotignon

During the long era when Bach, Mozart and Beethoven were creating the musical canon of Western Europe, the songs of African slaves resounded in the colonies on the other side of the Atlantic, expressing pain and longing, but also joy and the desire for freedom. The American countertenor Reginald Mobley - a rising figure in baroque music, notably under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner with whom he sings very regularly - and the French pianist Baptiste Trotignon, winner of numerous awards (Victoires du Jazz, Django d'Or) have combined their talents and sensibilities to celebrate these spirituals and the music of Black composers including Harry T. Burleigh (1866-1949) and Florence Price (1887-1953), whose beautiful transcriptions and melodies blend with Baptiste Trotignon's subtle arrangements of the famous.

Didier Squiban has been a loyal companion of the Orchester National de Bretagne for over twenty years. After the recording of his first two symphonies, the Symphonie Bretagne and the Symphonie Iroise, we were able to complete the symphonic trilogy imagined by Didier Squiban by recording in 2021, the Symphonie du Ponant, in the company of great performers such as Baptiste Trotignon on the piano and Airelle Besson on trumpet. La Symphonie du Ponant looks away, towards the seven islands off Brittany, towards the setting sun, towards the high seas… This symphony composed of Breton melodies is sublimated by improvisations proposed by masters of the genre. An orchestration full of colors, magnified thanks to the richness of a symphony orchestra and the direction of the Morlaisian Ariane Matiakh.