2023-04-28 17:00:06
- Johann Sebastian Bach
Anti-Melancholicus
Cantates : From the depths I call, Lord, to you BWV 131, My sighs, my tears BWV 13, God’s time is the very best time BWV 106. Avec Elodie Fonnard (soprano), William Shelton (alto), Thomas Hobbs (tenor) , Romain Bockler (bass), Ensemble Alia Mens, Olivier Spilmont (direction).
The second disc devoted to Bach’s cantatas by Olivier Spilmont and his Ensemble Alia Mens marks a new success. The musicians set out to trace a luminous spiritual trajectory despite the mourning, as evidenced by the title of the album, Anti-Melancholicus. A joy “ which is exalted in the serene power of a song executed with sobriety, and acts as an antidote to the pains and despairs of the human condition, of which the texts do not ignore anything. Thus the first cantata, From the depths I call to you, Lord (“from the depths, I cry out to you, Lord”), whose restrained expressiveness yields to jubilation. Clarity of prosody, precision of attacks, polyphonic intelligence, the four soloists serve the dramaturgy in osmosis with instrumentalists led by the flexible and fervent direction of Olivier Spilmont. Also called “A tragic act”, la célèbre cantate funèbre God `s time is the best time (“God’s time is the best of times”), a kind of mini-requiem, narrates the mortal condition of man, before his salvation by Christ, while My sighs, my tears (“my sighs, my tears”), undoubtedly one of the most heartbreaking ever written by Bach, explores dissonances and suspenseful chords before allaying fears and tears in extremis. Marie Aude Roux
1 CD Paraty/Harmonia Mundi.
- Four Zaïde
Invisible
Works by Fanny Mendelssohn, Felix Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann by the Quatuor Zaïde.
On paper, this program seems extremely coherent. On the one hand, the link « invisible » (hence the title of the album) which unites a brother and a sister (the Mendelssohns). On the other, the same underlying relationship between a man and his wife (the Schumanns). On the strictly musical ground, this ingenious confrontation is nevertheless a source of imbalance. Fanny Mendelssohn (or rather Fanny Hensel since she bore her husband’s name when she wrote her quartet) immediately set the bar for independence very high. Each movement testifies to a strong and atypical personality, like a romance which turns into dark meditation. Well served by the sensitive interpretation of the Zaïdes, Fanny does not allow her brother to exist afterwards, in the Whim, other than by the quality of the “profession”. Clara Schumann, she is completely out of the game since her Variations op. 20, originally intended for the piano, are offered here in an arrangement made for the occasion by Eric Mouret. Only Robert Schumann, with his sprawling Quartet No. 2, is worthy of the face-to-face with Fanny. But it was to Felix that he dedicated it… Pierre Gervasoni
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