Pascal Dusapin has composed a number of works for the stage, one of the more recent being the opera Penthesilea, after Kleist’s play. From the opera he has also fashioned Wenn Du dem Wind…, the suite which opens this album. Although beginning and ending with a single line from a solo harp, throughout its course takes the listener through the extremes of love, war and the demands of inflexible laws. Dusapin’s catalogue of works also includes several concertos, including Aufgang and À quia for violin and piano respectively. Soloists on this recording are Natascha Petrinsky, who sang the role of Penthesilea at the première production of the opera, and Carolin Widmann and Nicolas Hodges, both highly respected interpreters in the field of contemporary music. They are supported by l’Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and Pascal Rophé, a team well acquainted with the composer and his music: Dusapin and Rophé have collaborated since the early 1990’s and during 2014 – 16 he was the orchestra’s composer-in-residence.

The London Sinfonietta combine two works from Thomas Adès, one of the most distinctive and popular voices in modern composition. Both works feature accompanying films (by Tal Rosner and Sophie Clements) that are included in this CD/DVD set. This is the second CD for the London Sinfonietta with Signum. It follows their October release of music by Louis Andriessen, featuring the UK premiere of Anaïs Nin, alongside his famed work De Staat. In Seven Days is a musical interpretation for piano and orchestra of the biblical 'creation' by Thomas Adès, composed in collaboration with a film-piece by the artist and filmmaker Tal Rosner. Both music and film evoke the processes of the creation rather than the objects described in the movement titles, using simple elements in repeated and evolving contexts in a perpetual state of flux, change and growth. The Piano Studies Nos 6 & 7 are arrangements of player-piano works by the American composer Conlon Nancarrow. An influential figure to generations of composers, Nancarrow's studies for the player-piano (or pianola) allowed him to generate music of extreme rhythmic complexity in a multitude of inventive ways. These arrangements for two pianos by Thomas Adès capture the strange magic of the originals, where fragmented musical ideas are played off against each other in a wild, almost jazz-like way. The works are accompanied by film-visualisations by Tal Rosner and Sophie Clements.

With Johnny Hodges, the alto saxophone found itself in the hands of a goldsmith. As a member honoris causa of the Duke Ellington Orchestra from 1928 to 1970, Hodges’ delicate phrasing and incomparable talents as an improviser made him one of the most remarkable musicians in jazz history. In this previously unreleased live recording dating from 1961 he plays the great classics in Ellington’s material, titles he always incarnated with an incandescent grace. The Live in Paris collection by Michel Brillié allows listeners to hear previously-unreleased recordings (made at concerts and private- or radio-sessions) by the great 20th stars in jazz, rock & roll and song. These “live” takes, and the artists’ rapport with their audiences, gives these performances an additional soul and sensibility in counterpoint to the rigorous demands of studio recordings. Particular care was taken when restoring the sound of these tapes in order to meet modern standards while preserving the original colors of the period.