- Stravinsky-Ravel
The wedding. Bolero
Igor Stravinsky: Les Noces (1919 version completed by Theo Verbey); Maurice Ravel: Bolero (arranged by Robin Melchior). Amélie Raison (soprano), Pauline Leroy (mezzo-soprano), Martial Pauliat (tenor), Renaud Delaigue (bass), Ensemble Aedes, Les Siècles, Mathieu Romano (conductor).
As the cover (illustrated by a painting by Malevitch) with contrasting colors and figure cut in two clearly suggests, this album is of the bipolar genre. At the time of vinyls, each work would have occupied a side of 33-laps and, while passing from one to the other, one would have had the impression to change world. Whether The wedding by Stravinsky, in an original orchestration with the all-powerful pianola, and the Bolero by Ravel, in an arrangement for the same workforce, predominantly vocal, follow one another here, it is because they were so close, in 2021, in a show designed by the choreographer Dominique Brun. Without the visual dimension, they seem as alien to each other as a Bengal tiger and a teddy bear. The restitution of Wedding, harsh, fierce as a primitive art rite, constitutes a real enrichment. That of Bolero, with disembodied singers instead of solo instruments and harmonium without phrasing or breath, is nonsense. If it was a vinyl, we would be satisfied with side A. Pierre Gervasoni
1 CD Apart.
- Jeremiah Conus
Swiss Piano Music
Toccata and Variations; Seven short pieces ; Three pieces, d’Arthur Honegger. Fantasy on flamenco rhythms ; Eight preludes, of Frank Martin. Jeremiah Conus (piano).
The choice is disconcerting, but original, which immediately places this first album in the pantheon of discographic references: by recording pieces for piano by Arthur Honegger and Frank Martin, two contemporary Swiss composers, the young Jérémie Conus would do an innovative act he didn’t have this music pegged to the keyboard. His supple and distinguished playing, precise and ductile, his sense of dialectic do justice to Honegger’s three scores (created between 1915 and 1920), whose French affiliation and modernity he exalts. Ditto for the two works (1947 and 1973) by Frank Martin, whose particularly inspired writing he reveals, offering the listener more than the simple pleasure of discovery. Marie Aude Roux
1 Prospero CD.
- Oliver Temime
Inner Songs
The voice of saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk, taken from a live recording of Bright Moments, published in 1973, is integrated into the composition to the money, with which begins the excellent album Inner Songs, by saxophonist Olivier Temime. Kirk repeats the formula several times « clickety clack, won’t somebody bring the spirit back » (“Will someone bring back the spirit”). With Kirk probably in its mystical component, here it is the spirit of jazz, announced by this preliminary, which is celebrated, played with fervor, by Temime and his comrades. Including the organist Emmanuel Bex, the drummer Antoine Paganotti, the buglist and trumpeter Stéphane Belmondo… There are Temime compositions, all marked by intense melodic curves (Dreamers Will Never Die, Thuoc Phien, A Lullaby For Constance…), a few times, including Little Sunflower, by Freddie Hubbard After the Rain, by John Coltrane. A string quartet performs on Golden Lady, by Stevie Wonder. The only frustration is that this contribution is not present elsewhere. Sylvain Siclier
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