Clartés obscures - Philippe Malhaire

What do we expect from a composer? Above all, we hope that he will amaze us, surprise us, intrigue us! It is especially desirable that he has found his own path, that his style of writing is personal, distinct from his colleagues, and belongs only to him. With Philippe Malhaire, we are not disappointed: over the years, this composer has asserted his uniqueness, at the risk of his work being misunderstood, and has cultivated a form of wise marginality. He does not seek “novelty”—which is often artificial when deliberate—and even less so modernism, but he does not follow tradition either, except that of disobeying all forms of subordination.

This monographic recording, which reflects an attraction to the piano, chamber music, and the voice, invites us to discover Philippe Malhaire's music by highlighting the diversity of his sources of inspiration. It begins with the Suite mineure (2023) for piano, consisting of seven successive pieces, followed by Une petite plaisanterie (2024) for voice and piano, then Cathédrale (2019-2020) for piano four hands, another suite, which does not say its name, consisting of seven preludes, and finally the Suite for violin and piano (2014), where five pieces follow one another without interruption. The three instrumental suites are in fact cycles; each follows an underlying theme, mirroring a profound, ever-renewed quest, in which a fascination with darkness is inseparable from the desire to be freed from it. Philippe Malhaire advances here through “obscure clarities,” the title of this album conceived by its principal performer, pianist Fanny Prandi, who has been loyal to the composer for many years and, moreover, is the originator of this monographic recording.

Anthony Girard

Suite mineure pour piano (éd. Klarthe)

Une Petite Plaisanterie* pour mezzo-soprano et piano (éd. Klarthe)

Cathédrale** pour piano à quatre mains (éd. Delatour)

Suite pour violon et piano*** (éd. Klarthe)

Fanny Prandi, piano
*Camille Bauer, mezzo-soprano
**Sylvain Combaluzier, piano
***Stéphanie Moraly, violin