Jérémie Guez

He was one of the winners of the Rahn Music Prize for Piano 2020: the young Swiss pianist Jérémie Conus. In spring, his debut album with works by Swiss composers will be released by Prospero Classical. The programme of the exciting album includes works by Arthur Honegger (Toccata and Variations, Seven Short Pieces) and Frank Martin (Fantaisie, Eight Préludes).

According to Berlioz, Spontini was – after Gluck – the greatest genius of French music to pave the way for the Romantic era. And it may well be that the little-known Olympie, premiered in 1819 and subsequently revived in 1826 under the modified title Olimpie, had a greater influence than we have hitherto imagined on the massive upheaval that was to set French opera on the path of the modern ‘grand opéra’. From start to finish, this finely polished score, with its astonishing orchestration, is full of spectacular effects that clearly look forward to Les Troyens of Berlioz.

These are the only concertos that Haydn wrote for himself to play: by his own admission ‘no great wizard’ on any instrument, nonetheless these agreeably tuneful early works show how Haydn’s nascent style was gaining shape and symphonic aspiration beyond the simple charm of Mozart’s superficially similar Church sonatas.

The 20 th century was indeed a very fascinating time. Musically, this century offered an incomparable variety of movements. From post-romanticism, neo-classicism, im pres sionism, jazz to the most diverse developments in the field of atonal and serial music, at the same time, people were composing in a vast variety of styles. Therefore, it is difficult to assign a single style to a composer, especially since the boundaries between them were very fluid and influences from the most diverse fields can be recognized in the works of many composers. In Arthur Honegger’s case, the French influences are unmistakable. Honegger, who grew up in Zurich, spent a large part of his life in France. He there was a member of the Groupe des Six, a group of six composers, whose members included Darius Milhaud and Francis Poulenc.

1949 : Josef Mengele arrive en Argentine.
Caché derrière divers pseudonymes, l’ancien médecin tortionnaire à Auschwitz croit pouvoir s’inventer une nouvelle vie à Buenos Aires. L’Argentine de Peron est bienveillante, le monde entier veut oublier les crimes nazis. Mais la traque reprend et le médecin SS doit s’enfuir au Paraguay puis au Brésil. Son errance de planque en planque, déguisé et rongé par l’angoisse, ne connaîtra plus de répit…