Voyage

...FROM THE EAST TO THE WEST...

Since its creation in 1987, the Marseille Wind Quintet has never ceased to travel, a way for the musicians who make up the group to discover and fulfil themselves thanks to a double encounter, first with others, then with themselves.

From the East to the West, the journey presented here with the complicity of the bass-baritone Jean-Christophe MAURICE and the doudouk player Levon CHATIKYAN goes from Armenia to Spain, passing through France and Corsica.

The works recorded on this disc are all creations created by the Quintet in its attempt to reinvent the contemporary repertoire.

Two Armenian composers, Arthur AHARONYAN and Vache SHARAFYAN, offer us the rich colours of their country, each in his own way bringing the past and the present into dialogue.

Another facet of the Marseilles musicians' innovative approach is the transcription, by Bernard BOETTO in this programme.

In the four Corsican songs created in 1933, Henri TOMASI celebrates the Corsican soul, that of the land of his origins.

The two pieces devoted to CERVANTES' Don Quixote were also composed in 1933, for the film by G.W. PABST. Maurice RAVEL and Jacques IBERT found in them a field of personal expression, an attraction for the description of the Iberian picturesque for one, a fascination for a man in pursuit of an ideal he never met, for the other.

Frédéric BARON

Reviews on... -> Diapason

Arthur Aharonyan - Contes russes
Vache Sharafyan - Esquisses nostalgiques*
Henri Tomasi - Quatre Chants corses**
Jacques Ibert - Quatre Chansons de Don Quichotte**
Maurice Ravel - Trois Chansons de Don Quichotte**

Quintette à vent de Marseille
Thomas Saulet, flute
Patrice Barsey, oboe
Daniel Paloyan, clarinet
Frédéric Baron, bassoon
Didier Huot, french horn


* Levon Chatikyan, doudouk and zourna

** Jean-Christophe Maurice, baryton-basse
    Bernard Boetto, arrangements