Alpha Classics continues its collaboration with the Ensemble Intercontemporain and presents a programme devoted to compositions by its conductor and artistic director, Matthias Pintscher. bereshit, ‘in a beginning’ in Hebrew, is a piece on the subject of divine creation. The architecture of the work refers to the idea of the growth of the elements out of nothingness to their finished state: the colours, the harmonies are therefore always redefined by what precedes and follows them. Songs from Solomon’s garden – still in a highly spiritual dimension – explores amorous passion through the shir ha shirim (Song of Songs). The poetic density of this text is underlined here, with the only repeated phrase of the work taking on a quasi-incantatory signification: ‘she-cholat ahava ani’ (for I am sick of love).

THE BRITISH MUSIC COLLECTION -

Classical Music

The Ensemble Intercontemporain and its new music director Pierre Bleuse pay homage to György Ligeti, whose centenary we celebrated in 2023: ‘Ligeti is one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century and certainly one of those who first made a powerful aesthetic impact on me personally!... This recording, which combines concertos and chamber music, highlights the EIC’s qualities as soloists and chamber musicians. And I’m not forgetting that Ligeti is an integral part of the repertoire of the Ensemble, which has performed his works extensively… So this is an ideal way of beginning my own story with the EIC’, says Pierre Bleuse, who brings his personal conception to these works and seeks to approach each score like ‘a virgin forest’. A noteworthy feature here is the new cadenza composed by Philippe Maunoury for the Violin Concerto, with Hae-Sun Kang as soloist. Renaud Déjardin (cello) and Dimitri Vassilakis (piano) perform the other concertos of this tribute program.

REVIEW:

The Paris ensemble’s new music director Bleuse sets out his stall with a wonderful all-Ligeti disc that honors a composer it has long been associated with. The violin concerto and the concerto for piano and orchestra are among the works on this beautifully realized recording. Utterly engrossing.

-- The Sunday Times (U.K.)