Claude Bolling - Claude Bolling Collector - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Music is a secret form of mathematics, the elements of which have a share in eternity. It lives in the movement of water, in the undulating motion of changing winds; nothing is more musical than a sunset! (Claude Debussy) In a series of five compact discs WERGO releases Claude Debussy's complete works for piano - masterly played by Nina Tichman. Music is for Debussy part of nature, originating from it and returning to it. As a sensitive mediator it allows one a glimpse of an original state of things in which man and nature were one - and at the same time documents painfully the loss of this original state. Expressions like Inchmusic of silenceInch and Inchmusic in the open airInch are key expressions in understanding Debussy's works. In 1915 Debussy composed the Douze études, his last work for piano solo. He dedicated the work to Frédéric Chopin, thus consciously taking his place in the ranks of a great tradition and formulating a claim for the genre InchétudeInch which extends far beyond its function as a technical practice piece. The titles of the études are abstract, indeed, compared with the poetic ideas of the InchPréludesInch and other piano works they could in fact be described as truly scientific in their precision. The theme of each title is the technical problem dealt with in each individual piece (intervals, chromaticism, repetitions etc.). The works which follow these dry titles display bold freedom and fantasy, shimmering beauty which leaves far behind all trace of InchétudeInch character. The études, of all things, the epitome of dry school-book learning, become a feast of creativity.

Claude Bolling - American Movies [COMPACT DISCS] date 03/09/2010

A great figure in European jazz, the eternal ambassador of Big Band Swing and the inventor of 'crossover,' Claude Bolling is also a prolific composer of film-music. His original soundtracks - from Borsalino and Lucky Luke to the Brigades du Tigre television series - belong in the league of works by Lalo Schifrin or Henry Mancini. This anthology compiled by Stéphane Lerouge contains great Bolling classics as well as rarities (some of them for the first time on disc).