New double CD with music by Guillaume Connesson and with soloists Timothy McAllister and Renaud Capuçon released by Deutsche Grammophon!
After 'Lucifer' (2014) and'Pour sortir au jour' (2016), French composer Guillaume Connesson returns to Deutsche Grammophon with 'Lost Horizon', a new double album conducted by Stéphane Denève at the helm of the Brussels Philharmonic. Awarded the Victoire de la Musique Composer of the Year 2015, Connesson received this prestigious award a second time in February 2019 for his violin concerto Les Horizons perdus, premiered by Brussels Philharmonic, Stéphane Denève and Renaud Capuçon in 2018 in Brussels.
The new double album 'Lost Horizon' explores two sides of the composer. The first disc looks to the fantastical and festive Cités de Lovecraft (Cities of Lovecraft) and A Kind of Trane, a saxophone concerto inspired by John Coltrane and performed by renowned saxophone soloist Timothy McAllister.
The second disc looks inward and features the Violin Concerto ‘Les Horizons Perdus’, dedicated to and performed by violinist Renaud Capuçon. The concerto is inspired by the 1933 James Hilton novel (adapted for film by Frank Capra in 1937) in which four travellers discover the Tibetian lama-monastery of Shangri-La. Lastly, Le Tombeau des Regrets (The Tomb of Regrets) is a grand slow movement built around four themes. In this work, Guillaume Connesson was tempted by “a very linear, almost
choral writing, exploring the intimate feelings of the passage of time, repressed regrets and impossible returns”.
Written during a brief period between 2015 (A Kind of Trane) and 2018 (Les Horizons Perdus), these four scores show the many facets of a composer who draws his inspiration from the sources of scholarly art as much as popular, without borders or taboos.
Brussels Philharmonic • Stéphane Denève • Renaud Capuçon (violin) • Timothy McAllister (saxophone)
• recorded at Studio 4, Flagey by Jean-Marc Laisné & Jonathan Ducasse • Geert Goiris (photo CD cover)
Les Cités de Lovecraft
1) Céléphaïs [9’05”]
2) Kadath [10’22”]
3) La Cité du soleil couchant [4’08”]
A Kind of Trane, Concerto for saxophone and orchestra • Timothy McAllister, saxophone
4) “There is none other” [5’00”]
5) Ballade [10’08”]
6) Coltrane on the dancefloor [6’11”]
Les Horizons Perdus, Concerto for violin and orchestra • Renaud Capuçon, violin
1) Premier voyage [8’20”]
2) Shangri-La 1 [4’38”]
3) Deuxième voyage [6’00”]
4) Shangri-La 2 [9’19”]
Le Tombeau des Regrets
5) Le Tombeau des Regrets [12’38”]