Sébastien Morillon

"Each of the pieces in this programme is like an ephemeral castle that I can take refuge in when I feel like it," says Sébastien Llinares. Here, the French guitarist, who stands at the crossroads of classical, jazz and contemporary music and also produces the programme Guitare, guitares on France Musique, puts his playing at the service of every kind of music. Jimi Hendrix's Castles Made Of Sand was the inspiration for this programme; Sébastien Llinares hears in it the unchanging open string that the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos so often used. His journey continues with tributes to famous songs by Bernstein, Gershwin and Rodgers & Hart, an evocation of Rufus Wainwright and Baden Powell in the forms of the Habanera and Bossa Nova — not forgetting a tribute to Django by John Lewis as well as Leonard Cohen's eternal Hallelujah, which takes on the air of an ancient canario when played on the classical guitar. Two bagatelles and an impromptu composed by Llinares himself complete the family portrait.

French pianist Sebastien Paindestre – last heard on the French/American quartet Atlantico's En Rouge (La Fabrica'son, 2016) – leads his own trio in a mostly-original program. The liner notes credit a Fender Rhodes technician, and the opener "Scottish Folk Song" (by Walt Weiskopf) shows why. After introducing the tune on acoustic piano with double bassist Jean-Claude Oleksiak and drummer Antoine Paganotti (with the pastoral sound promised by the title) the Rhodes makes a dramatic entry with a distorted, highly electronic sound. It's very distinctive, almost like a synthesizer rather than a piano, and it brings out an aggressive side to Paindestre's soloing. The instrument performs a similar function on the third track, "Gaza-Paris-Jerusalem (For Peace)." There it is used both as a solo voice and as the voice of conflict during a brief unsettled section. The Beatles tune "Mother Nature's Son" gets a memorable jazz treatment next. The Rhodes is used to play the head, this time with a more conventional celeste-like bell sound. Bassist Oleksiak also gets a nice solo showcase.

"Each of the pieces in this programme is like an ephemeral castle that I can take refuge in when I feel like it," says Sébastien Llinares. Here, the French guitarist, who stands at the crossroads of classical, jazz and contemporary music and also produces the programme Guitare, guitares on France Musique, puts his playing at the service of every kind of music. Jimi Hendrix's Castles Made Of Sand was the inspiration for this programme; Sébastien Llinares hears in it the unchanging open string that the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos so often used. His journey continues with tributes to famous songs by Bernstein, Gershwin and Rodgers & Hart, an evocation of Rufus Wainwright and Baden Powell in the forms of the Habanera and Bossa Nova — not forgetting a tribute to Django by John Lewis as well as Leonard Cohen's eternal Hallelujah, which takes on the air of an ancient canario when played on the classical guitar. Two bagatelles and an impromptu composed by Llinares himself complete the family portrait.

Marc-Antoine Charpentier was the French composer of the Grand Siècle who left the largestnumber of works specifically related to Christmas. Here, going beyond the famous Messe de Minuit,listeners will be all the more enchanted by his histoires sacrées (brief oratorios) and Noëls pourles instruments when they are presented by thecomposer’s most fervent advocates.

An Italian travel diary. Paris, 1665: a young composer leaves the Saint-Michel district to embark on a journey to Rome. The journey promises to be a long one, its stopovers rich in encounters for Charpentier. On this new recording, Sébastien Daucé invites us on an imaginary recreation of that voyage of initiation, from Cremona (Merula) to Rome (Beretta), by way of Venice (Cavalli) and Bologna (Cazzati). A journey in space, but also in time, through the sources of inspiration of a composer whose future works were to recall the colours of Italy – as the magnificent Mass for four choirs testifies.

Jean-Marie Leclair, a pure product of the 18th century, was at the crossroads of styles, cultivating a virtuosic art combining melodies à la française and Italian virtuosity stemming from Corelli and Vivaldi. He was 49 when he undertook his first (and only) lyric tragedy: Scylla et Glaucus. In the greatest French tradition, this work combines sumptuous numbers of sentimental outpourings with frightening scenes of fury and terror, in which the orchestra, with forceful passages, plays a dazzling role.