Leo Ferre

Poète plus que parolier, compositeur inspiré et mélodiste surdoué, puisant sa force créatrice chez Baudelaire ou Rimbaud autant que chez Debussy ou Beethoven, Léo Ferré est un « monument » – qu’on aurait toutefois tort de confondre avec un mausolée. …

Gidon Kremer and Mario Brunello pay tribute to Beethoven by presenting two of his most famous quartets in a version for string orchestra played by Kremerata Baltica. The ensembles founder Gidon Kremer directs op.131 from the violin, while Mario Brunello conducts op. 135 and adds two contemporary pieces, one by Leo Ferre, the revolutionary, anarchic, inspired singer-songwriter and great lover of Beethoven: Muss es sein? Es muss sein! We perform this hymn to free music in a version arranged by Valter Sivilotti for cello, strings and percussion with Ferres original voice Note sconte means hidden notes in Venetian dialect.

"Medail est un poète, et c'est pour ça qu'el ne m'a jamais tradi. Et puis, il a du talent, et puis il chante bien. Ecoutez-le. Vous ne l'entendrez jamais su "Hit Parade" de la merde. Et c'est bien comme ça. Il me ressemble et bravo!" – Léo Ferré

French soprano Patricia Petibon is known for recordings with ambitious, original programs, spaced several years apart. This is one of her most ambitious, and one of her best, even if some might find it a bit outrageous. Petibon approaches the French art song of the late 19th and 20th centuries from the perspective of popular song, suggesting that the boundary is blurry (noncontroversial in itself), and adding a few songs by Léo Ferré, the vastly underrated older contemporary of Jacques Brel. Where things start to get wild is not with the inclusion of popular songs, or even with the heavy emphasis on the music-hall rhythms of songs going back as far as Gabriel Fauré.