HOME PRESENTATION CATALOGUE ARTISTS CONTACT US

WIDOR’S SYMPHONIES BY LABRIC Fourth volume released! SOCD405 For quite some time now, Yvette and I have continuously striven to rescue the recorded legacy of Pierre Labric from oblivion. To pursue this indispensable memory work there still lacked the Widor symphonies, recorded in 1971 and first released in the United States by the Musical Heritage Society. This LP set was quickly sold out and subsequently became the object of pirate transfers. The American edition suffering from a mediocre pressing, we long hesitated in using it up to the day the miracle occurred: informed of our problems, a Rouen doctor informed us that he had just acquired at auction (!) a fair number of tapes from the original collection. Thus, fifty years after their recording (in which I was allowed to take a modest part), we found ourselves in a position to give life to the Third and Fourth Symphonies, these quasi twin compositions practically hatched the same year. This reissue can only delight this prestigious musician who will celebrate his 102nd birthday this year. François Carbou CHORUS Florentino Calvo & Ensemble MG21 SOCD401 As we approach the 15th anniversary of our existence, it seemed important to us to return to the studio - but why and with what programme? Today, our repertoire boasts nearly fifty lovely works, fruits of our encounters and companionship with contemporary composers. Perusing this catalogue, a ridgeline emerged with, as contours, the common filiations existing between certain works and so-called popular or folk music. These could be described more globally by the term ‘pop’, whether they are traditional or indeed rock. Some of them pay tribute to emblematic figures such as Brubeck, Hendrix or Piazzolla. Ensemble MG21 will soon be 15 years old, a fine age – and it is perhaps not a coincidence – that is suitable to celebrate with the sound of this pop music that bears in it the ardor and nostalgia... of eternal youth. Florentino Calvo MAURICE EMMANUEL - HISTORIC RECORDINGS Symphonic and Chamber Works SOCD397 On the occasion of the release of this new CD devoted to works by Maurice Emmanuel, I would like to salute the considerable efforts carried out over many long years by Anne Eichner, the composer’s granddaughter. Her unflagging commitment and faithful support of record producers as well as musicians have contributed to making better known the music of this erudite grandfather, who was admittedly too discrete but whose noble face is hard to forget. The works on this programme come from the inexhaustible INA archives and are performed here by top-flight artists (Maurice Maréchal, Jeanne-Marie Darré, the Parrenin Quartet, André Boutard, et al.) whose names alone invite us to a new discovery – even though these works had already been recorded. Yvette Carbou

FOU TS’ONG Live in Concert SOCD402 When the young Fou Ts’ong won Third Prize at the Warsaw Chopin Competition in 1955, he was only 21 years old and created a real sensation and astonishment – to the degree that the jury was so impressed by his personality that they awarded him a special ‘Mazurka Prize’ for his remarkable interpretation of these pieces that are so characteristic of the composer. What strikes with this musician, rich with the double culture Asian and Western, when listening to these precious taped archives preserved at the INA, is his playing; playing that is absolutely natural. It is the playing of an authentic, totally sincere artist who was quite simply himself. Yvette Carbou YVONNE LEFÉBURE Unissued Recordings, Volume 5 SOCD398/99    This is not a swansong... just barely an “Au revoir” to the great French pianist whose recordings we had the tremendous privilege of producing. Seeking to perpetuate her memory since her death in 1986, I have drawn extensively on the Lefébure collection at the INA (National Audiovisual Institute), but did not imagine discovering even more gems thanks in fact to a series of broadcasts initiated by Rémy Stricker (her former student), titled What do We Know About Music?, a sort of panorama of piano literature. This manna constitutes the primary source of the programme presented here. We naturally find major works by her favorite composers but we never tire of hearing them, so much does the pianist, whose standards are never achieved, give us spontaneous versions of the moment, always different... And here we understand all the better the dilemma between the musician and interpreter. Yvette Carbou MARCEL CIAMPI Live in concert, Paris 1955-56 SOCD395       Born 29 May 1891, five months to the day after the pianist Yves Nat (1890-1956), who was with him in Louis Diémer’s class at the Paris Conservatoire, Marcel Ciampi belonged to that generation of ‘historic performers’, rooted in the 19th century but served by the evolution of technology, which would have the privilege of bequeathing numerous excellent traces of his playing. Preserved on tapes, then ignored for more than six decades, the musical testimonies brought together on the present CD are remarkable in that the French Radio recorded them live before an audience in the mid-Fifties, in the course of two concerts given at the ‘Maison Gaveau’.