Julien Gu nebaut - Rothschild's Fiddle - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Claudio Arrau - Claudia Arrau Plays Chopin [COMPACT DISCS] date 05/31/2005

With it's elegant figure and it's glinting timbre, the mandolin has survived the centuries, inspiring the greatest composers, from Vivaldi to Stravinsky and Led Zeppelin. Julien Martineau makes his instrument captivate the audiences all over the world. His new album presents concertos by Corentin Apparailly and Karol Beffa, works in which virtuosity and emotion merge into a re-assertion of the place of the mandolin in the classical repertoire, also opening new prospects for this exceptional instrument. The Fifth Season thus proves to be far more than a mere recording; it is a real manifesto for the mandolin.

An emancipated slave, the Chevalier de Saint-George managed to elevate himself to the highest spheres of the Enlightened 18th-century French society, thanks to his incredible accomplishments as a fencer, horseman, and musician. From the Guadeloupe where he was born, to Paris and Versailles where he made a name for himself, to Lille that he defended against the royalists during the French Revolution, he quickly became one of the most important characters in both the musical and the military scenes. Through his compositions, testimonies from specialists and secrets shared by some of his best interprets, this film narrates his extraordinary adventures.