Massimiliano Pezzotti, Francesco Fontolan - Ibert, Tournier, Bozza, Jolivet, Luigini, Ravel: Vers la source dans le bois (2021)

A subtle thread weaves through the pieces that make up this elegant record. This thread evokes a particular view of music, perhaps even of human nature, from which echoes the name of the ensemble that performs these pieces, the Ariosofuriosotrio. This dual concept, evoking tradition – the formal composure of an aria – on the one hand, and renewal – the (re)creative fire of fury – on the other, a metaphor for an existential (as well as social and cultural) condition, guides the listener in this unusual journey into French music, following an equally unusual trio: flute, bassoon, and harp.
The paradigmatic and the syntagmatic axes, to quote Jakobson, or the style and the idea, to quote Schoenberg, are entwined in the musical gestures of the composers selected, and they weave a thread that leads from the end of the eighteenth century to the start of the new millennium. Starting, in reverse chronological order, with Eugène Bozza (1905-1991), perhaps the least well known of the authors in this record: after studying violin performance under Lucien Capet at the Paris Conservatoire and becoming first violin of the Pasdeloup orchestra, he had a brilliant international career as a soloist in the Twenties which he decided to interrupt in 1930 to focus exclusively on composing. His music displays a typically French inclination towards elegance and grace, and also strongly idiomatic writing for woodwinds and brass instruments, which pairs melodic flow and structural transparency to a clear pathos in timbre, highlighted – like in this Sonatina – by a sharp rhythmic touch and dedicated to Jacques Ibert through a clear reference, in the first movement, to Ibert’s own Concerto for Flute and Orchestra.

Tracklist
01. Deux interludes en trio: No. 1, Andante espressivo
02. Deux interludes en trio: No. 2, Allegro vivo
03. Vers la source dans le bois (For Harp)
04. Sonatine à Monsieur Jacques Ibert: I. Allegro (For Flute and Bassoon)
05. Sonatine à Monsieur Jacques Ibert: II. Andantino (For Flute and Bassoon)
06. Sonatine à Monsieur Jacques Ibert: III. Vif (For Flute and Bassoon)
07. Pastorale de Noël: I. L'Etoile
08. Pastorale de Noël: II. Les Mages
09. Pastorale de Noël: III. La Vierge et l’Enfant
10. Pastorale de Noël: IV. Entrèe et danse des Bergeres
11. Rêve bleu (For Harp)
12. Sonatine in F-Sharp Minor, M. 40: I. Moderè
13. Sonatine in F-Sharp Minor, M. 40: II. Mouvement de Menuet
14. Sonatine in F-Sharp Minor, M. 40: III. Animè