This album invites us into an intriguing, enigmatic and almost mystical universe, a sort of final pilgrimage to the limits of piano’s sound possibilities. Built around the themes of night, death and mystery, this recital joins emblematic works such as Scriabin’s Black Mass Sonata and ‘Vers la flamme’ to Liszt’s´‘Lugubre gondola’ and ‘La Notte,’ along with rarer pieces.
Composed around ten years apart, the preludes of the young Messiaen and of the artistically established Debussy show some amazing similarities, down to the poetry and mysticism of their titles. Here are twenty preludes in the shape of soundscape postcards, twenty miniatures at the border of Impressionism, like so many snapshots of life and dreamlike evocations, from dead leaves in autumn to an imagined journey to Spain, from the thousand colours of fireworks to the sadness of a desolate landscape…
I always had the impression of knowing The Art of Fugue. I perceived its immensity. I liked its mystery. Mystery of the unfinished work, a questioning facing the testamentary work, fascination exerted by the perfection of the contrapuntal writing. The Art of Fugue teaches us time, the need for time and the acceptation of time.
Sometimes a program comes to you instinctively, as a necessity, something you have to do. Here I felt an urge, a need to gather together pieces for which Bach in a sense laid the first stone.
This album presents a selection of three Beethoven sonatas for piano and violin. They were recorded in a concert-like environment at the Jeu de Paume Theater in Aix-en-Provence to better convey their vibrating and communicative energy.
Each recording has a story, some have a story to tell, this one meets History. In the soldier’s trunk can be seen as a collection of musical scores, but it does much more. It brings us to live the reality of the Great War. Through the memory of the musician and soldier Lucien Durosoir, we understand how through music, the human spirit is stronger than savagery.