L’esprit du temps

Music for cello and piano by Igor Stravinsky, Lili Boulanger, Nadia Boulanger, George Enescu

I am so happy to announce that my new CD ‘L’esprit du temps’ has been officially released on February 26th on the label TRPTK.

In these turbulent and uncertain times, in which the confrontation with the pandemic Corona crisis is posing great and unprecedented problems for society and music life in particular, and a new zeitgeist seems to emerge from these challenging perspectives.

Together with  pianist Frank van de Laar, I want to draw parallel with a different period of time and paint a (sound) picture of Paris in the first decades of the 20th century. With the tremendous impact of the 1st world in the background, some of the greatest composers of the 20th century such as the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and the Romanian Georges Enescu were building a completely unique oeuvre. The salon of Nadia Boulanger was glowing meeting point where great musical minds met and exchanged ideas. Her sister Lili died  at the age of 24 in the last year of the war, leaving behind the unfading memory of her outstanding talent.

The CD can be ordered through TRPTK.

Order CD on TRPTK
Order CD on bol.com
Interview NRC Handelsblad (Dutch)

Ballets Russes —
Hommage to Diaghilev

Music for cello and piano by Borodin, Prokofiev, Poulenc and Rimsky-Korsakoff
Buy cd online

The CD “Ballets Russes” wants to pay tribute to the legendary Sergei Diaghilev, who founded this world famous ballet company in 1909. The visionary impresario Diaghilev managed to bring numerous genius dancers, designers, painters and composers together. Through this fruitful and unique collaboration the productions of the Ballets Russes revolutionised the early 20th century arts and continue to influence the cultural activity until today.

It is highly fascinating how thanks to his creative energy cultures and art forms blend together, and the aim of the CD “Ballets Russes” is to show how this fusion leads to enthralling enrichment and inspiration in music from the perspective of the dialogue between cello and piano.

The sonatas of Prokofjev and Poulenc, whose careers where launched by Diaghilev, are the key works on this recording.  Written in the same year but in totally different circumstances, they both bear the typical Diaghilev characteristics of humour, fairy-tale colour palette and of course references to dance. Two charming small pieces by Poulenc, the recently discovered “Souvenirs” and the transcription the famous song “Les Chemins de l’Amour” create a truly Parisian Ballets Russes atmosphere. Borodin’s brilliant Polovtsian Dances, which were performed during the Ballets Russes seasons 827 times, give in its arrangement for cello and piano a glimpse into the heart of Diaghilev’s world. To conclude the recording, the virtuoso Concert Phantasy on Rimsky-Korsakoff’s  opera “the Golden Cockerel” displays in its exotic and ravishing colourfulness all the main characters of the original fairy tale and thus offering Diaghilev’s last opera production in a nutshell.