Sonya Yoncheva has long been fascinated by George Sand. Writer, dramaturg, and literary critic, a journalist and an intellectual, the lover of Alfred de Musset and then of Frederic Chopin as well as being a friend of Franz Liszt, Pauline Viardot and Marie Dorval, and beyond her remarkable destiny as a woman blessed with the "glorious and complete independence" which in her age was reserved solely for men, Sand embodies the entire spirit, the essence even, of the 19th century. It is in the first place her boldness, approaching the intrepid, which appeals to the Bulgarian soprano. Sand showed daring for all of her life, and what a fount of inspiration her writings are, on all kinds of topics. Whether political, social, cultural, artistic, how pertinent they are, and how their vibrant, trenchant language dazzles! George Sand loved the arts unconditionally. And so this programme opens the doors to us, revealing her artistic universe and bringing her passions to life. Her house, her kitchen, her salon stir into action again, in this soiree in the company of her friends, these artists to whom she was so close and who, respectfully and with tender affection, listened to each other, conversed, laughed, and celebrated in music and poetry. Here, George Sand do not sing, nor do she play an instrument. So Sonya Yoncheva portrays her by reading some of her words. They bear witness to the sparkling, glittering nature of the "Lady of Nohant". What surprises there are throughout this recital! If the passionate urges of Alfred de Musset, fervent or, as so often, disappointed, nourish this journey equally, so the sumptuous Nuit de decembre by Ruggero Leoncavallo, the more hedonistic examples of Pauline Viardot, these two Mazurkas by Chopin transformed into melodies with Louis Pomey's slightly schoolboyish texts, or more obscurely the "medley" of Les Bohemiennes, marrying diverse motifs, of Brahms's Hungarian Dances, also delight heart and mind - a beautiful homage to the innate music that derives from folk and popular traditions, something that George Sands so frequently and tenderly extolled.

This seventy-fourth volume of the Vivaldi Edition of the na�ve label is dedicated to the opera Arsilda, a work of great dramatic variety that greatly stimulates the insatiable imagination of the Venetian. This major work is defended here with ardor and fluidity by Andrea Marcon, his musicians of La Cetra, and seven singers in perfect artistic communion, including the mezzo-sopranos Benedetta Mazzucato and Vasilisa Berzhanskaya in the two main roles (Arsilda, and Lisea).

Trained in Kyiv, his hometown, then in Austria where he lives today, Dmytro Choni - Bronze Medalist at the 2022 Van Cliburn, Gold Medalist at the Santander Paloma O'Shea in 2018 - imagines for his recording debut with naive an ingenious and mischievous dialogue between Paradise and Hell, in direct echo to the Divine Comedy of Dante Aligheri, the essential poet of the late Italian Middle Ages, who was a strong influence on a Romanticism that was looking for it's roots. The luminous pieces, with soothing melodies, will embody Paradise. The first opus of his compatriot Valentyn Silvestrov, whose aesthetic recalls the quiet beauty of Kyiv, the calm Bagatelles open the present journey in elegiac tones, even if here and there, as in the moving Moderato median, some beginnings of a coming anxiety emerge. The terrifying darkness will burst forth from the incipit of Apres une lecture de Dante (Liszt), where Choni becomes the devil himself. In this fantasia quasi sonata, hell is a tragic whirlwind, and the passionate impulses transcribe the unhappy passion of Paolo and Francesca. Then a new, devastating contrast. The centrepiece of the second part of Debussy's Images for piano, Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut, introduce another Paradise, where Orient meet ancient Greece, both dreamed and fantasised; the French composer captures in the very sounds of the Balinese gamelan our sense of wonder when looking at ancient temples. The culmination point of the program, L'Isle Joyeuse, speaks more of the joy linked to budding love. In this highly virtuosic piece inspired by Watteau (Embarquement pour Cythere, 1718), just as much a fictional reduction of a ballet with orchestra, Debussy achieves a unique sensual energy, truly erotic. Gargoyles (like the grimacing stone figures of the cathedrals) then revive the evil spirits, in a slightly percussive style that evokes Prokofiev and even more the Sonatas of Roger Sessions (1896-1985). The American composer Lowell Liebermann here links together four short, highly expressive pieces, where the sarcasm of the introduction (Presto) or the final Presto feroce coexists with the ether in the Allegro moderato. The gentle limpidity of Silvestrov's Postludium finally ends this program where Dmytro Choni, with his ever-lively and incisive fingers, becomes above all, like Charon on the Styx, a ferryman "between the worlds".

Avishai Cohen, one of the most innovative bassists and composers today, will release Gently Disturbed, his first release with his newly configured trio, from May on his own Razdaz Recordz label. While to outward appearances the trio would seem to be the standard piano-bass-drum formula, the music they've created on Gently Disturbed is far from the standard jazz trio repertoire. Featuring nine original compositions (written either by Cohen or by the trio collaboratively), including one traditional Israeli song, Gently Disturbed is an amalgamation of melody and groove, complexity and simplicity that nearly redefines the concept of jazz. With the departure of long-time pianist Sam Barsh, Cohen has slightly reconfigured his trio with the addition of Israeli pianist Shai Maestro. Since Cohen is an accomplished pianist in his own right and has performed on bass with such acclaimed jazz pianists as Danilo Perez, Brad Mehldau and of course Chick Corea, and because the previous keyboard players in his bands (Sam Barsh and Jason Lindner) have been exceptional, it is even more striking to note that Maestro is just 21 years old. Rounding out the trio is the brilliant Mark Guiliana on drums, who has been playing and touring with Cohen since 2003 and who Modern Drummer Readers Poll 2007 cited as "one of the best up-and-coming stars of today's drumming scene." Cohen's releases on Razdaz, which he founded with manager Ray Jefford in 2003, have consistently earned critical approbation, beginning with 2003's Lyla, followed by at Home in 2005, and through to 2006's critically acclaimed Continuo then followed by last year's Double Live CD/DVD release, As Is... Live at the Blue Note (Razdaz / Half Note).

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LUNA DE CALABOZO

Now available at a new price - this is one of the most unclassifiable and multidimensional projects released by Naive. a beautiful CD-DVD-book, a "Music-Fiction" called Taiga Maya and conceived by contemporary musician-writer Thierry van Roy and Melanie Gabriel (the daughter of Peter). "My concept of Music-Fiction, based on the principle of alternative history, consists in rewriting History of the past or the future and to imagine a music that could have existed or might exist. Taiga Maya is the traditional music of a future civilization, born from the fortuitous and virtual encounter of the Siberian Yakuts and the Mayans of southern Mexico a few years after the major Earth disaster of 2012. In a shamanic way, Taiga Maya tries to show the need to be connected to the real essence of life, to Nature, and to open our spirit to the non-ordinary reality that surrounds us." - Thierry Van Roy.

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Mon Yiddish Blues

Impressions of Africa

EPHEMERA