Surinam Genève

Camille Saint-Saëns - Ascanio - Guillaume Tourniaire, De La Haute École de Musique de Genève (2018) {B Records LBM013}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/48kHz - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 983 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 453 Mb
Full Artwork (jpg+pdf) ->46 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2018 B Records | LBM 013
Classical / Romantic / Opera / French

Ascanio is the student of Benvenuto Cellini, a legendary Florentine sculptor. This latter character's genius and romances came to know a great operatic destiny. The name Ascanio is also the title of a grand lyrical drama by Camille Saint-Saëns which premiered in 1890, and is based on Paul Meurice's play. The opera was abridged several times and reassembled despite the composer's strong objections. It is a wonderful work, far too little-known, in which Italian lyricism, Wagnerian influence and French elegance combine. For the very first time, we will be able to hear the complete premiere performance of the version abiding by the 1888 autograph manuscript. It is brought to us by the impassioned conductor, Guillaume Tourniaire, and a topflight, French-speaking cast. They are accompanied by the Orchestra and Choirs from the Grand Théâtre de Genève and the Haute École de Musique. All this has been meticulously and enthusiastically recorded by B Records.

Le finte gemelle was first staged in 1771. Success was immediate and other performances followed both in Italy and abroad. With Le finte gemelle Piccinni returned to a genre he had already tried ten years previously with La Cecchina ossia La buona figliola (1760), on a text by Goldoni. A sweeping success, that masterpiece had made him famous in all theatres well before he found himself at the centre of the well-known dispute between Gluck and Piccinni supporters, which would explode in Paris in 1778, after the performance of his Roland. The present live recording, in co-production with the Opéra de Chambre de Genève, features a young and qualified cast who masterfully render the spirit of this score by Piccini.

Countertenor Max Emanuel Cencic has a truly astonishing voice. The listener could reasonably forget that it's a man who's singing and imagine it's a mezzo with an extraordinary range and coloratura technique. If the cynic were to raise the question of the advisability of a countertenor singing arias originally written for a mezzo-soprano, the answer would simply be "because he can," and the result is pretty fabulous. Terms like "lustrous tone" and "dazzlingly secure technique" and "subtly nuanced interpretations" spring to mind.

The two Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Flute and for two Cellos by Antoine Reicha show an astonishing balance between innovation and reflection. They bear witness to an outstanding virtuosity and art of composition, which revolutionise forms through spectacular, enthusiasm-provoking lines of execution and through novelties of writing that impact their deeper structures. A composer who established a link between the Enlightenment and Romanticism, Vienna and Paris, Joseph Haydn and César Franck (one of the last among his many pupils), Reicha can no longer be reduced to his theoretical and didactic dimension alone: his extensive work, still too little known, continues to surprise us.

Le jeune Européen et Genève ou Moscou : parus, l'un en 1927, l'autre en 1928, Drieu a écrit dans la préface de Genève ou Moscou que ce sont des livres jumeaux. Dans Le jeune Européen, il raconte l'histoire d'un jeune Européen qui lui ressemble, qui a tâté un peu de tout et qui, depuis dix ans, aux côtés d'Aragon et de Breton, a appris son métier d'écrivain. Genève ou Moscou, ce sont en politique les idées du jeune Européen. …