EAUX-FORTES
Kirill Zvegintsov, piano
There exists an ‘imaginative universe à la française’, as attest the etchings of Jacques Callot, the undergrowth of Corot, and the distant landscapes of Watteau, concealing mysteries, uncertainties, and unavowed fears. The chimera is melancholy and dream, and it can also be terrifying. There is a strange violence in the trills of the great Couperin, dissimulated beneath the ribbons. Debussy comes cloaked in mystery. Jacques Lenot jealously maintains his secret garden, and Georges Hugon, whose destiny seems sleek and orderly, evokes the shade of Shakespeare to liberate his fantasies ‘à la Scarbo’.
Aside from his educational project around the music of Kurtág, the ‘Galaxie-Y’ Endowment Fund has set itself the mission of bringing back to life, thanks to this evolving collection, musical scores of France whether almost ‘ancient’ or sometimes recent and, in any case, all wildly inspired.
Françoise Thinat
ref. SOCD 362
GREAT HOURS OF LITURGY
At Notre-Dame in Paris
Conceived even before the tragic fire that ravaged Notre-Dame, condemning it to silence for a number of years, this timely rerelease comes to bring back to life the ceremonies that punctuated a bygone era, an era which, in the 1970s under the direction of Archpriest Berrar, was animated by a phalanx of outstanding musicians led by the mai?tre de chapelle Jehan Revert and organist Pierre Cochereau. Many things have changed since then: the bells of the north tower were in fact replaced, whereas the carillon of hours seems to have disappeared in the torment, and the least that can be said of the great organ is that, due to its complete overhaul, it no longer sounds the same.
Remastered from the original tapes, the present disc renders its former splendour to the cathedral.
François et Yvette Carbou
ref. SOCD 901
EDITH CANAT DE CHIZY
VISIO
Were it necessary to define Edith Canat de Chizy's sound universe as accurately as possible, the words 'energy', 'tension' and 'movement' would immediately spring to mind, so much does the urgency of this music seem projected towards an elsewhere dictated by the imagination. This is one of the reasons for which the composer refutes any system that would mistreat her spirit of invention and risk diverting its trajectory.
Michèle Tosi
ref. SOCD 359
DINU LIPATTI - THE LAST RECITAL
From the original master tape
The aim of the present release of Dinu Lipatti’s last recital at the Besançon Festival – about which we know the dramatic conditions in which it took place – is to give, for the first time, a version not only complete but going back to the best sources. And it is once again thanks to the I.N.A. (National Audiovisual Institute) that, by chance, we found the original tape from 1950, recorded with the means of the French Radio (R.T.F.). Solstice elected to release this recital as preserved on the original tapes – with the presence of hiss. This was an artistic choice stemming from a concern for authenticity. With all the customary reservations, we thus have grounds for considering the present version historic.
Yvette Carbou
ref. SOCD 358
CHRISTMAS NIGHT
At Notre-Dame in Paris
This record is an attempt to evoke the enchantment of Christmas Eve which, every year, drew thousands of people to Notre-Dame. They come seeking to recapture something of the wonder of this most ancient of all feasts. All the works on this record were sung in the cathedral at Christmas 1973. Each lends its own touch to the rich luminosity of the picture of the Nativity.
ref. SOCD 906
EX TENEBRIS LUX
Les Zippoventilés Ensemble
Holy Week is doubtless the fullest period of the Christian liturgical calendar, featuring the essential points of the faith’s meaning and mystery. This time was a source of inspiration for most of the Baroque composers. We have chosen to illustrate this week with several Tenebrae lessons. The genre is fairly ambiguous in the musical landscape of the era: it was indispensable to create music sufficiently sober to meet liturgical requirements by recalling the melismatic intimacy of the Gregorian. But, in spite of that, the works demonstrate considerable sophistication and thoroughly Baroque expressiveness, not hesitating to make syllabic use of the text.
Benoît Dumon
ref. SOCD 354
Bousch
SOCD 355
Tosi/Duo
SOCD 357
Tosi/Gounod
SOCD 353
Kondo/Recital
SOCD 356
Selva/Columbia
SOCD 351/2
Bartok/Otaki
SOCD 350
Cochereau/Suites
SOCD 349
Dupré/Rignol
SOCD 348
Demessieux/Labric
SOCD 346/7
Piazzolla/Abinasr
SOCD 345
Lefébure/Legend
SOCD 321/44
Tosi/Violin-Phase
SOCD 320
Séverac/Melodies
SOCD 319
F.Thinat
SOCD 315/6
Phonic Design/Tosi
SOCD 318