Philippe Devillierdevillier

Canadian pianist Jean-Philippe Sylvestre performs works for piano by Maurice Ravel, recorded on an Erard piano built in 1854. "The concept and performance of a work are affected by the instrument one plays," says Jean-Philippe Sylvestre. "To bring out the Baroque character of two pieces, Le Tombeau de Couperin and Menuet sur le nom de Haydn, I wanted a piano with harpsichord-like articulation and sonority. That is why I decided to record this album on an Erard, a very special piano whose sonority and vibrations recreate the sounds, soul and mood of the time of Ravel and of the first Impressionists." Jean-Philippe Sylvestre has appeared at the prestigious Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, plus all the major concert halls across Europe as well as the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. He is a regularly invited soloist with the Orchestre Metropolitain, the Orchestre symphonique de Quebec, the Orchestre symphonique de Laval, and the Orchestre symphonique de Longueuil.

Famed for his Debussy playing, the pianist Philippe Cassard brings his acute ear for instrumental color to these deceptively simple miniatures. Like Grieg’s Lyric Pieces, Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words requires a master pianist’s touch, and Cassard is fully up to the challenge. He plays with an accompanist’s sensitivity (he works regularly with the soprano Natalie Dessay) and brushes in the melodies with real skill. His control of line is effortless, and the music simply flows on the wings of song.

While any of Liszt's superb transcriptions of Beethoven's first eight symphonies is a challenge for the pianist, the two-piano arrangement of the Ninth is at once spellbinding and a formidable test. This remarkable synthesis of soloists, chorus and orchestra presents a powerful structure that condenses all the fearsome difficulties of ensemble playing for the two pianists. This version by Philippe Cassard and Cédric Pescia displays extraordinary nobility, truth and grandeur, with the epic sweep ideally suited to the "Ode to Joy".

For his latest ATMA Classique recording, horn player Louis-Philippe Marsolais has chosen a selection of chamber music by Clara and Robert Schumann composed for various instruments, some of which have been transcribed for horn. He is joined by pianists Philip Chiu and David Jalbert, and cellists Stéphane Tétreault and Cameron Crozman.

In this music, all is dialogue, mingled avowals and passions, on the threshold of the opera house. All Mozart’s forms are nurtured by the same source, that of vocal melody. “I like an aria to be as precisely tailored to a singer as a well-cut suit,” he declared when he composed an aria. And what an aria this one is. The keyboard enters into dialogue with the soloist.

The Magnificat was the very first work Bach composed after his appointment as Cantor of St. Thomas's School in Leipzig in 1723. We can imagine the care he lavished on the work that was to establish him in this new function. It was revised some years later: the key was changed to D major and the forces were considerably enlarged. This is the version in which one of Bach's most famous choral works has come down to us.

Trio Viret, retour vers le futur Miracle de l’improvisation collective, ivresses des métamorphoses, le trio de Jean- Philippe Viret vient de fêter ses 20 ans et s’invente de nouveaux possibles. A l’image du trio de Bill Evans qui, au début des années 1960, a révolutionné l’esthétique du trio jazz en remettant en cause le principe du solo accompagné, Jean-Philippe Viret, Edouard Ferlet et Fabrice Moreau ont axé leur jeu sur l’écoute, l’échange, le dialogue, l’interplay. Profondeur du discours, équilibre des voix, cohésion d’ensemble, architectures, chaque musicien, affranchi de toute idée d’ordre et de hiérarchie, réinvente sa relation à l’autre à chaque instant dans un trilogue magnifique. Ainsi, simplement, naturellement, un chant s’invente et se déploie. Nouvel avatar, nouvelle métamorphose du trio Viret, l’adjonction d’un deuxième batteur qui n’est autre qu’Antoine Banville avec qui le trio a débuté. Deux batteries, la formule a un goût d’inédit. C’est un gage de nouveauté, de fraîcheur pour la musique pleine de grâce et de fluidité organique de ce groupe décidément pas comme les autres.