Ondes

In Guadeloupe, many people think that jazz and ka music are like a ring and a finger. To some extent, the same could be said about so called Latin music and the music played in the French West Indies. Both aesthetics were born in the Caribbean and bear so many connections that they can easily be considered cousins. In constant dialogue, there are lots of examples of their fruitful alliance and have been for a while. The English country dance that used to be practiced in European lounges came to be called kadrille in Martinique and contradanza in Cuba. They both featured additional percussion instruments inherited from the transatlantic deportation. Drawing from shared feelings about the same traumatized identity – later to be creolized – it would be hard not to assume that they were meant to inspire each other.

French composer Olivier Messiaen was famously synesthetic, “hearing” colors as harmony and seeing colors in sound. The Turangalîla-symphonie summed up the composer’s passions for nature, birdsong, Catholicism, Eastern philosophy, music, and romantic love as embodied in the legend of Tristan and Isolde; in this concert, Andris Nelsons leads this work that the BSO premiered in 1949 under Leonard Bernstein’s baton. The brilliant Yuja Wang takes on the work’s hefty piano part and Cécile Lartigau performs on the ondes Martenot, an early electronic instrument. Turangalîla was commissioned by Serge Koussevitzky.

After their highly acclaimed 2014 debut album as a duo, Moderato cantabile, Anja Lechner and François Couturier widen the scope of music even further.

Released to mark the 40th anniversary of Pink Floyd's legendary "Wish You Were Here", this album features the London Orion Orchestra performing a symphonic interpretation of the album, recorded at Abbey Road Studios where Pink Floyd did the original. From the world of rock, keyboardist Rick Wakeman and singer Alice Cooper kick things off with the vocal version of Wish You Were Here, while guitarists Stephen McElroy (Steve Mac) and Dave Fowler from tribute band the Australian Pink Floyd Show bring their best Floydian fretwork to the instrumental version.

The long-awaited first volume consists of five ordres (Couperin uses the word ordre rather than suite, implying a suite) and includes a large, double-page decorative table at the end. While this may seem small considering the four volumes and 27 ordres (27 = 3 cubed, which some say is related to Freemasonry), the total number of pieces exceeds 70, surpassing the other volumes in terms of the number of pieces contained in a single ordre (particularly the first and second ordres). With the exception of the fourth ordre, the first half is typically a French suite, with dance pieces filling the gap, and the second half is dominated by titled pieces, many of which are based on dances.

Yehuda Inbar's Flowers we are presents a captivating and profound dialogue across three centuries, juxtaposing the elegant, intricate harpsichord works of François Couperin with the sparse, haunting miniatures of György Kurtág. This album is a meditation on transience and beauty, where the formal gardens of the French Baroque meet the stark, poetic fragments of the modern era. Inbar's sensitive and thoughtful interpretations reveal the unexpected emotional and philosophical threads that connect these two masters, creating a recital that is as intellectually stimulating as it is deeply moving. It is a unique musical exploration that affirms the enduring fragility and resilience of the artistic spirit.

It will not be an exaggeration to say that what holds the compositions presented on this album together is the fascination with movement. However, the sources of that interest must always besought in the way the creators perceive the world and in the place where they see music.

On Friday 18 March pianist Daniel van der Hoeven presents his new cd "Immersed". The cd contains works by Bach, but not the standard repertoire for piano.