Michel de Villers made the beautiful evenings of La Rose Rouge before attending the Trois Mailletz with his accomplices Guy Lafitte and André Persiani. Attached to the swing, the saxophonist worked to demonstrate that good music and entertainment were perfectly reconcilable. A point of view shared by Boris Vian, artistic director of Philips discs. His clientele demanding dance records, Boris supervised the recordings. Entrusted to Villers, arranged by Persiani, these big band faces from 1958 and 1959 - we ignore the staff - instrumental adaptations of fashionable themes, still retain all their charm. In 1961, Jean-Christophe Averty produced a Claude Bolling Special Show for television. The show featured the pianist's nonette, a medium formation that sounded like great. In the absence of images, the music testifies to it.
La version de Véronique Gens de La Voix humaine est très attendue ! Cette « tragédie lyrique en un acte » est faite pour elle, son sens du verbe et son intensité dramatique sont au rendez-vous de ce monologue composé par Poulenc en 1958, sur un texte de Jean Cocteau. On est bien loin ici du Poulenc « léger » des années 1920. Cocteau lui fait d’ailleurs le plus beau des compliments : « Cher Francis, tu as fixé, une fois pour toutes, la façon de dire mon texte. » Véronique Gens confie avoir toujours voulu interpréter et enregistrer cette pièce ; c’est maintenant chose faite avec ses complices de l’Orchestre National de Lille et de son directeur musical, Alexandre Bloch. Également présente sur l’album, la Sinfonietta, qui est en fait une véritable symphonie, mais, comme l’écrit Nicolas Southon, « il est indéniable que l’œuvre – commandée par la BBC à Poulenc en 1947 - possède une fraîcheur et une liberté de ton qui justifient son titre ».
This Albert Roussel disc couples the Second Symphony with one of the composer's most popular pieces, the complete ballet music for Bacchus et Ariane. It is the first in a cycle of three releases featuring the four symphonies and two ballets by the French composer, performed by the Orchestre de Paris and Christoph Eschenbach.
The goal of this recording is to celebrate French music through its past: its antique dances, its pastoral ambiences, its atmospheres of legend… starting with a homage to François Couperin. Often considered as the very quintessence of French musical art, this very great composer and harpsichordist succeeded in charming musicians from all times and places, even far removed from his personal universe. We know, for example, that Brahms held him in high esteem. Nearer to our own time, Hendrik Andriessen (1982-1981) – a major figure in Dutch music – borrowed a lovely melody from our composer (from La Basque, in the Second Book of Harpsichord Pieces), as the theme for a set of variations composed in 1944. Led by a tender and agile flute, accompanied by a harp and strings, the work discreetly evokes the rhythms of the antique dances (the Sicilienne, the Chaconne, the Gavotte…) and also contains a ‘scholastic’ fugato; other more lyrical or meditative moments confer an intensity and even a nobility of expression on these charming ‘concert variations’ that make one regret the little reaction that Andriessen's music has suscitated outside of his own country.
The conducting of Simon Rattle is the most compelling element in this recording of Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortilèges with the Berlin Philharmonic. Rattle draws playing of great delicacy and nuance from the orchestra, and the many sections that are scored as lightly as chamber music are played with especially loving attention to shaping the elegant and expressive phrases; the beginning of the second part of the opera is especially magical.
This CD will be best appreciated by those who admire the 'authentic performance movement' in baroque music. Christofellis's voice isn't what I call beautiful, but their is no denying that his ability is extraordinary, if not bizarre. The highlight for me is the sublime 'Lieto cosi tal volta' from Pergolesi's little-known opera Adriano in Siria and I recommend buying the CD for this aria alone. Christofellis is also a musicologist and it is interesting to hear an informed take on musical issues such as ornamentation. Anyone wondering what the castrati may have sounded like can get a pretty good idea from this recording.