“If music doesn’t disarm us, what good does it do? »

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Imitation of No, thank you ! extract from Cyrano de Bergerac (Act 2, Scene 8) by Edmond Rostand

If you let your musketeer soul a little
Fortune and fame…
Cyrano.
And what to do?
Seek the mighty protector, take the protector,
And like the dark ivy that surrounds the stem
And make her keeper by licking her bark,
Climb by cunning instead of climbing by force?
No, thank you. Dedicate, like everything they do,
Worms for financiers? Turn into a clown
With bad hope to see, on the lips of a minister,
To finally create a smile that isn’t creepy?
No, thank you. Lunch, every day, frog?
Is your stomach tired from walking? A skin
Which is faster, in place of the knee, to get dirty?
Doing a back flexibility trick?…
No, thank you. With one hand pat the goat’s neck
While on the other hand, we water the cabbage,
And senna giver of desire for rhubarb,
Have a censer, always, in the beard?
No, thank you ! to push from round to round,
To be the little big man in the circle,
And sailed, with madrigal oars,
And in her veils the sighs of old women?
No, thank you ! At the good Sercy publisher
Are your verses published by paying? No, thank you !
To go and be named pope by the council
That in a cabaret stay stupid?
No, thank you ! Trying to build a name
In the sonnet, instead of writing another? Not,
Thank you ! Did you find talent only in mazette?
To be terrorized by an obscure newspaper,
And keep saying to myself, “Oh, as long as I
In the little newspaper Mercure François? »…
No, thank you ! Count, fear, pale,
Preferring visits to poetry,
Write a petition, introduced?
No, thank you ! No, thank you ! No, thank you ! But… to sing,
Dreaming, laughing, passing, alone, free,
Having eyes that see well, a voice that trembles,
Put, as you like, the flannel hat is bent,
For yes, for no, for fight – or write a verse!
Work regardless of fame or fortune,
For such a trip, one would think, to the moon!
Never write something that doesn’t come out of itself,
And even more humble, to say to myself: my child,
Satisfied with flowers, fruit, even leaves,
If in your own garden you pick it!
Then, if by chance wins a little, by chance,
Not obligated to give anything to Caesar,
For yourself keep the merits,
In short, disdain to be parasitic ivy,
Even when one is neither an oak nor a linden tree,
Not to climb too high, perhaps, but alone

Music programming

Johan Sebastian Bach : BWV 271 chorus: Befiehl du deine Wege – for 4 a cappella sounds
Hillard Set
ECM
461895-2

Everything interests me: sacred music, baroque or even contemporary music. – François Busnel

Franz Liszt : Mephisto-waltz n°1 S 514
Claire Marie Le Guay, piano
Mirare MIR512

I discovered Liszt recently and it’s the Claire-Marie Legay interpretation that propelled me to Liszt: she is joy and laughter. – François Busnel

Franz Schubert : Piano Sonata n°20 in A Major opus posth D 959 : 1. allegro
Arcadi Volodos, piano
Sony classic 19075868292

The other day a friend gave me this version with Arcadi Volodos… I was overwhelmed… We went one level up… it takes an amazing person to play like this!
There are people who are free beauty distributors! – François Busnel

Jean-Philippe Rameau : Les Indes galantes: The great peace pipe dance (Les Sauvages 4th entry – scene 6)
Les Arts Florissants directed by William Christie
HMC 901367/69

With Les Indes Galantes and Rameau, I hear of this crazy moment in the history of music and thought. Music is not just entertainment, accompaniment or illustration… Thanks to Rameau, I discovered all the imagination of History, and William Christie was my best history teacher. – François Busnel

Claudio Monteverdi : Book VIII: Non havea febo ancora – lamento della ninfa
Rossan Bertini, soprano
Concerto Italiano performed by Rinaldo Alessandrini
Naive OP 30425

With Monteverdi we are in an important period, when we leave the world and we haven’t arrived yet…
Rameau has not arrived yet, and neither has Couperin… We are no longer in that period of the Middle Ages where we have purity of sound, where instruments release sound…
This is a human moment where all the arts meet. – François Busnel

Georg Friedrich Handel : Psalm 109: Dixit dominus hwv 232: De torrent in via bibet
Felicity Palmer, soprano
The Monteverdi Orchestra and Choir were conducted by John Eliot Gardiner
Erato ECD 88072

This Psalm 109 by Handel is my camera in the heart of these vast mountains, these beautiful Montana forests, these pure rivers, unsullied by human hands, I believe that the holy… it is there! … – François Busnel

Young Neil : heart of gold
Johnny Cash, voice and guitar
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Johan Sebastian Bach : Concerto for 4 harpsichords, strings and basso continuo in A minor BWV 1065: Allegro
Trevor Pinnock, Marcus Mohlin, Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Marieke Spaans, harpsichords
The Copenhagen concert was conducted by Lars Ulrik Mortensen
CPO CPO7776812

Bach was the only introduction I had to classical music: it was the 4-piano version of the K7 that my parents listened to in the car. It’s so broken, we hear badly, the sound is bad… but suddenly I let myself get carried away by the melody…. and it will remain for me: melody.
The child I found with Bach, the melody, the melodic line that continues.
Bach is a projector in the night, he illuminates the depths of our night. – François Busnel

Johan Sebastian Bach : Concert No. 1 in D minor BWV 1052: Allegro
Bremen Philharmonic German Chamber
David Fray, piano and conductor
Virgin 213642

If music doesn’t disarm us, what’s the point.
… and there was Bach, there was Handel and Christie… and there life began – François Busnel

Johan Sebastian Bach : Concert in F minor BWV 1056: Largo
Singer Swingle
Philips 826948-2

The Swingle Singers is proof that we are entitled to do anything, take Bach and adapt it.
It was not a very free Bach, I found mad power in it, it was an inexplicable beauty. The real magic is that the world exists and when I heard Bach by Swingle Singers I told myself that magic exists. – François Busnel

Barbara Strozzi: Che si può fare
Simone Kermes, soprano
The Magnifica Comunita is led by Enrico Casazza
Sony 88875111382

When we played Che si può fare, we got the impression that it was a song, we weren’t into classical music and we weren’t really into ditties.
I hope we will bring Barbara Strozzi out of oblivion. – François Busnel

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