- Mikel Urquiza
Mischievous
Mikel Urquiza : Lavorare stanca, My Voice Is My Password, Elurretan, More Sweetly Forgot, Songs of Spam, Cancionero sin palacio. Neue Vocalsoloisten, Ensemble C Barré, Sébastien Boin (direction).
Born in Bilbao in 1988 and trained at the Paris Conservatory, Mikel Urquiza has had great success with each of his creations for several years. But what about putting them into perspective for portrait purposes, like the one painted here under the aegis of a word, “mischievous”, supposed to sum up his style? Facetious, Mikel Urquiza is certainly facetious in most of the issues of this edifying monograph. The young composer lacks neither ideas nor skill. He is fond of borrowing from famous themes (The Marseillaise In Working tired, Dead leaves In My Voice Is My Password) and the remodelings of the past (in Songbook without a palace, noisy orchestration of a collection of the Spanish Renaissance). More inclined to entertain, in the spirit of a Peter Maxwell Davies, than to deconstruct in the style of a Mauro Lanza or a Francesco Filidei, two of his elders whom he nevertheless brings to mind, Mikel Urquiza shines in a wacky register with limited effect. This has not always been the case, as revealed by the two most beautiful pieces of the program, also the oldest, written in 2017: More Sweetly Forgot, endowed with a timeless breath, and in the snow with incredible brilliance. There, no anecdotal seduction, only music, personal and penetrating. Pierre Gervasoni
1 CD Fingerprint/Socadisc.
- Marine Swamp
Range
The Range, Sonata à la Marésienne, Ringtone of Sainte-Geneviève du Mont de Paris. Les Timbres, with Yoko Kawakubo (violin), Myriam Rignol (viola da gamba), Julien Wolfs (harpsichord).
Entering the court of Louis XIV, where he became Ordinary Music Officer of the King’s Chamber, Marin Marais is the author of four operas (the most famous is Kingfisher, in 1706) and above all five major books of pieces for violas da gamba. But there is also a number of chamber music, including a large body of trio pieces, to which this 1723 collection belongs: three original compositions stripped of the usual sections devoted to dance suites. So Range, of which each piece, built on one of the notes of the octave raised then lowered, deploys like a little opera without text, dances, fugues, character pieces and instrumental “stories”. The composer wrote the singular Maresian Sonata just before leaving the court to take refuge in the garden of his house, rue de l’Oursine, in Paris. A musical testament in the form of a self-portrait, which breaks down Italianate taste while humorously adopting some of its uses. As for the famous Ringtone of Sainte-Geneviève du Mont de Paris, a real challenge of musical architecture backed by the three notes of the bells of the abbey of the same name, it continues to captivate with the evocation of a landscape that is both urban and mystical. In total affinity with this music, Les Timbres seduce with their interpretation as solar as it is refined, whether it is the elegant and sensual violin of Yoko Kawakubo, the sensitive and radiant viol of Myriam Rignol or the inventive and tutelary harpsichord of Julien Wolfs. Marie Aude Roux
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