Taking Debussy as their start point, Francette Bartholomée, Bernard Pierreuse et Ning Shi have conceived a fascinating program sprung from the French composer’s Syrinx and Sonate for flute, viola and harp. The trio has indeed surrounded these two masterworks – which are given here a masterly performance – by three recent scores that were directly inspired by them : the Sonata after Syrinx by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, the great British composer for whom Syrinx was an essential source of inspiration; And then I knew ‘twas Wind – title is taken from Emily Dickinson – by Toru Takemitsu, the Japanese XXth Century master, so deeply influenced by Debussy and by Messiaen ; finally, Images by Benoît Mernier, a composition of 2002 which received recently its first performance in Brussels. Also based on the Sonate, this work confirms once more the qualities of this young composer. Recorded in the alpine surroundings of the Tibor Varga Studio in Sion, this cd is something of a quest, a quest of the meaning of inspiration where quality of sound, of tone, of silence, of composition and of individual and collective experience of the musicians meet to celebrate the centennial influence of Debussy.
