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Chansons d'amour

Ralph Rousseau

Chansons d'amour

Format: CD
Label: Challenge Classics
UPC: 0608917230529
Catnr: CC 72305
Release date: 03 October 2008
1 CD
 
Label
Challenge Classics
UPC
0608917230529
Catalogue number
CC 72305
Release date
03 October 2008
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN
NL
DE

About the album

‘Tou can hear that Ralph a experienced, musical player is in the autentic work for gamba, what’s although the best part of the cd.

''The album 'Chansons d'amour' is more then just a flirt. This is true inner love''<'De viola da gamba is de koningin onder de instrumenten''

''All pieces have verve and sound beautiful absolutely beautiful''

Winner of the Edison Classical Audience Award 2009!
Oude en nieuwe liefdesliederen door Ralph Rousseau
Voor Ralph Rousseau drukt dit album met 20e eeuwse Franse populaire muziek en 18e eeuwse Franse barokmuziek uit waar de viola da gamba voor staat: zingen!
Met deze opnames maakt Rousseau de unieke combinatie van hedendaagse muziek met de historische grootmeesters van de viola da gamba, zoals Marin Marais. Rousseau speelt samen met het Matangi strijkkwartet en jazz contrabassist Hein van de Geyn. Het publiek beloonde dit album met een Edison in 2009.

Rousseau studeerde aanvankelijk contrabas bij Henk Guldemond en promoveerde in de natuurkunde. Daarnaast heeft hij de stichting Gambomania opgericht, vernoemd naar één van zijn albums. Met deze stichting hoopt hij de aandacht voor de viola da gamba te bevorderen.
Der niederländische klassische Gambenspieler Ralph Rousseau hat sich mit dem Matangi Quartet und dem Jazz-Bassisten Hein van de Geyn zusammengetan, um ein ganz ungewöhnliches Experiment zu wagen: den Brückenschlag von der Barockmusik eines Marin Marais zum französischen Chanson. So wird auf einmal z.B. ein Brel-Lied zum melancholischen Kammerstück. Die hinreissenden Arrangements sind kleine Klangjuwelen, die nicht nur Alte-Musik-Fans beglücken wird.

Artist(s)

Matangi Quartet

The Matangi Quartet was founded in 1999 by four young musicians then studying at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and the Conservatory of Rotterdam. In 2003 Matangi completed the two-year, full-time course at the Netherlands String Quartet Academy under the direction of Stefan Metz (cellist, Orlando Quartet). At the Academy, the Matangi Quartet had the opportunity to take lessons from international renowned musicians, including the members of the Amadeus Quartet. The quartet also received intensive mentoring from Henk Guittart (violist, Schönberg Quartet) for several years. The Matangi Quartet has since developed into a regular performer in the Dutch chamber music scene and abroad. With their impassioned playing and smart presentation, Maria-Paula, Daniel, Karsten and Arno epitomize a new generation of...
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The Matangi Quartet was founded in 1999 by four young musicians then studying at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague and the Conservatory of Rotterdam. In 2003 Matangi completed the two-year, full-time course at the Netherlands String Quartet Academy under the direction of Stefan Metz (cellist, Orlando Quartet). At the Academy, the Matangi Quartet had the opportunity to take lessons from international renowned musicians, including the members of the Amadeus Quartet. The quartet also received intensive mentoring from Henk Guittart (violist, Schönberg Quartet) for several years.
The Matangi Quartet has since developed into a regular performer in the Dutch chamber music scene and abroad. With their impassioned playing and smart presentation, Maria-Paula, Daniel, Karsten and Arno epitomize a new generation of classical musicians. They are often characterized by words such as communicative, provocative and refreshingly versatile. The Matangi Quartet has shared the stage with various top-class classical musicians such as the Schönberg Quartet, the Royal Quartet, Miranda van Kralingen, Tania Kross, Ivo Janssen, Paolo Giacometti and Severin von Eckardstein.
The quartet has also been invited to perform in various festivals and concert series, including the Delft Chamber Music Festival, the Amsterdam Grachtenfestival, the Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Orlando Festival, the Robeco Summer Concert Series in Amsterdam, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Festival van Carthage in Tunisia, the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai and the International Conservatoire Festival in St Petersburg. Since 2005 the quartet has presented its own concert series in the ‘Beurs van Berlage’ in Amsterdam.
In 2002 Matangi was awarded the prestigious Kersjes van de Groenekan Award, an annual prize awarded to exceptional chamber music talent in the Netherlands. In 2008 the quartet won third prize at the International Joseph Joachim Chamber Music Competition in Weimar. The Matangi Quartet released several CDs issued by Challenge Records International which all received great critical acclaim. The latest releases were the CDs ‘Mendelssohn’ (2009) and ‘Candybox’ (2010). Together with viola da gamba player Ralph Rousseau the quartet won the Edison Audience Award 2009, for their CD ‘Chansons d’amour’ (Challenge Records 2008).
Matangi regularly participates in innovative crossover projects and has performed in collaboration with artists such as cabaretiers Herman van Veen and Youp van ’t Hek, bandoneon player Carel Kraayenhof, jazz trumpeter Eric Vloeimans, DJ Kypski, jazz vocalists Mathilde Santing and Renske Taminiau, singer songwriters Lory Liebermann and Tom McRae. These pioneering excursions beyond the borders of classical music have resulted in Matangi winning an enthusiastic new public for the string quartet. No less important, this has provided a source of inspiration for infusing performances of the rich classical repertoire built up over the past 250 years – from Haydn to Adès – with new élan. For essentially, the Matangi are focused on just one thing: letting the audience palpably experience the energy, passion and excitement that is inherent in all good music.
All four musicians perform on instruments of Dutch workmanship. The cello and first violin have been provided on loan by the Dutch National Musical Instrument Foundation.
Who is Matangi? Matangi is the Indian goddess of speech, music and writing. The vina that she carries in her hand is an instrument that produces deep sounds with pleasing overtones. Matangi transports her listeners with her playing on the strings of passion, fervour, love and ecstasy.

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Hein Van de Geyn

HEIN VAN DE GEYN (1956) studied classical violin for 15 years, playing pop and blues on guitar, and changed to bass-guitar in. his late teens. Soon Hein played in dixieland-bands, but with his self formed bebop group he got awarded 'best soloist' on the 1977 Laren Jazz festival. This made him pick up the double bass, and start a career as jazz musician. In 1980 Hein moved to the USA, played and recorded with many great musicians and in 1983 returned to Europe to become one of the most sought after bass players. In 1990 Hein made the first album under his own name, a duo with Lee Konitz. Hein toured and recorded with Philip Catherine, Chet Baker and many...
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HEIN VAN DE GEYN (1956) studied classical violin for 15 years, playing pop and blues on guitar, and changed to bass-guitar in. his late teens. Soon Hein played in dixieland-bands, but with his self formed bebop group he got awarded "best soloist" on the 1977 Laren Jazz festival. This made him pick up the double bass, and start a career as jazz musician. In 1980 Hein moved to the USA, played and recorded with many great musicians and in 1983 returned to Europe to become one of the most sought after bass players. In 1990 Hein made the first album under his own name, a duo with Lee Konitz. Hein toured and recorded with Philip Catherine, Chet Baker and many years with Dee Dee Bridgewater until he decided in 1996 to pursue his own career as a leader and a bass-teacher. On some 80 records his name can be found as composer, arranger or solo bass player. In 1994 he created his group BASELINE with John Abercrombie and Joe LaBarbara and co-founded with Anne de Jong and Joost Leijen the Jazz label CHALLENGE JAZZ , for which he is still producing a growing number of successful recordings. He received the Bird Award and the prestigious Prins Bernhard Fonds Music Prize (for the stimulation of young musicians and his merit for European Jazz in general) and was elected as "Best European Acoustic Bass Player".

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Ralph Rousseau

Versatility, drive, talent and charm, character traits Ralph Rousseau possesses in overabundance. Ralph’s taste in music cannot be pigeonholed. For him, there are only two kinds of music: good and bad. He played in rock and jazz bands, and in classical orchestras. He studied physics, combining it after the first year with a conservatory education in the double bass. He completed both cum laude, and not long after got his doctorate in physics. Still, he chose music. It was as a double bass player with the Concertgebouw Orchestra that he got to know the viola da gamba. Everything suddenly fell into place. “I was struck by the sound, the possibilities, the chords.” Ralph has become a veritable ambassador for the...
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Versatility, drive, talent and charm, character traits Ralph Rousseau possesses in overabundance. Ralph’s taste in music cannot be pigeonholed. For him, there are only two kinds of music: good and bad. He played in rock and jazz bands, and in classical orchestras. He studied physics, combining it after the first year with a conservatory education in the double bass. He completed both cum laude, and not long after got his doctorate in physics. Still, he chose music. It was as a double bass player with the Concertgebouw Orchestra that he got to know the viola da gamba. Everything suddenly fell into place. “I was struck by the sound, the possibilities, the chords.” Ralph has become a veritable ambassador for the instrument. He has arranged many pieces for it. His affinity with the instrument also has a precedent in his name. “Rousseau is my mother’s last name. Her family traces back to 18th century France, around the time that the famous musicologist Jean Rousseau wrote a method for the viola da gamba. His book, from 1687, is a standard work that is reprinted and used even today. The name Rousseau and the viola da gamba are thus interlinked.”
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Composer(s)

Johann Sebastian Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, two Passions, and hundreds of cantatas. His music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth.  Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest in and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.  
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Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer and musician of the Baroque period. He enriched established German styles through his skill in counterpoint, harmonic and motivic organisation, and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from abroad, particularly from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Goldberg Variations, the Mass in B minor, two Passions, and hundreds of cantatas. His music is revered for its technical command, artistic beauty, and intellectual depth.

Bach's abilities as an organist were highly respected during his lifetime, although he was not widely recognised as a great composer until a revival of interest in and performances of his music in the first half of the 19th century. He is now generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time.


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Antoine Forqueray

Antoine Forqueray stems from a family of musicians, comparable to (but less famous than) the Couperins. He was educated as a viola a gamba player at the French court, under the protection of Louis XIV. In 1789 he was appointed as royal chamber musician. As a younger contemporary of Marais, he was one of the most famous gamba players of his time, and he also composed Pièces de viole and harpsichord pieces which betray more Italian (Corelli, Vivaldi) influence than French. Many of the harpsichord pieces were arranged by his son Jean-Baptiste (1699-1782) and only published in 1747. Rumor has it that the son reported his father to the Parisian police because of ‘fraud, visiting whores and gambling’ since he...
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Antoine Forqueray stems from a family of musicians, comparable to (but less famous than) the Couperins. He was educated as a viola a gamba player at the French court, under the protection of Louis XIV. In 1789 he was appointed as royal chamber musician. As a younger contemporary of Marais, he was one of the most famous gamba players of his time, and he also composed Pièces de viole and harpsichord pieces which betray more Italian (Corelli, Vivaldi) influence than French. Many of the harpsichord pieces were arranged by his son Jean-Baptiste (1699-1782) and only published in 1747. Rumor has it that the son reported his father to the Parisian police because of ‘fraud, visiting whores and gambling’ since he was jealous at him with his greater success in the 1720’s.
(Source: Musicalifeiten.nl)
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Jacques Brel

Jacques Brel, in full Jacques Romain Georges Brel, (born April 8, 1929, Schaerbeeck, Belgium—died October 9, 1978, Bobigny, near Paris, France), Belgian singer and songwriter whose literate, passionate songs made him one of the most popular French-language musicians in Europe and gained him a worldwide following. Brel began writing stories and poems as a teen, but he was an indifferent student, and after his final year of secondary school he took a job with his father’s packaging company. While there he became involved with a philanthropic youth organization, and he started performing and writing songs as a member of that group. Brel began singing his compositions in Brussels cabarets in 1952, and the following year he released his first recording, a single that featured the songs “Il y a” (“There Is” or...
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Jacques Brel, in full Jacques Romain Georges Brel, (born April 8, 1929, Schaerbeeck, Belgium—died October 9, 1978, Bobigny, near Paris, France), Belgian singer and songwriter whose literate, passionate songs made him one of the most popular French-language musicians in Europe and gained him a worldwide following.

Brel began writing stories and poems as a teen, but he was an indifferent student, and after his final year of secondary school he took a job with his father’s packaging company. While there he became involved with a philanthropic youth organization, and he started performing and writing songs as a member of that group. Brel began singing his compositions in Brussels cabarets in 1952, and the following year he released his first recording, a single that featured the songs “Il y a” (“There Is” or “There Are”) and “La Foire” (“The Fair”) on its two sides. Although the single was only modestly successful, it caught the attention of a French recording executive, who invited Brel to move to Paris.

In 1953 Brel began singing in French cafés. He did not meet with immediate success, but he persevered, and his first album, Jacques Brel et ses chansons (“Jacques Brel and His Songs”) appeared in 1955. He finally broke through with the title song of his second album, Quand on n’a que l’amour (1957; “If We Only Have Love”), and by the end of the decade he was a star in France. His songs, frequently sharply satirical and often implicitly religious, also became hugely popular in much of Europe. His best-known songs, including “Ne me quitte pas” (“Do Not Leave Me”), “Amsterdam,” “Madeleine,” “Les Vieux” (“The Old Ones”), and “La Chanson des vieux amants” (“Song of Old Lovers”), were translated and recorded by numerous singers in other languages. Notable American recordings of Brel’s songs included Damita Jo’s “If You Go Away” (1966), a translation by Rod McKuen of “Ne me quitte pas”; Judy Collins’s “The Dove” (1963), an English-language version of “La Colombe”; David Bowie’s “Amsterdam” (1973) and “My Death” (1983), the latter a translation of Brel’s “La Mort” (1959); and Terry Jacks’s “Seasons in the Sun” (1974), McKuen’s rather cloying translation of Brel’s 1961 song “Le Moribond” (“The Dying Man”). Brel became best known in the United States, however, through the 1968 Off-Broadway revue Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, which was revived on Broadway in 1972 and filmed in 1975, featuring translations by Eric Blau and Mort Shuman.

Brel announced his retirement from performing in 1966, with his final performance the following year, and he also released the album Jacques Brel 67. His next, and final, album, Les Marquises (1977), was rapturously received. A statue of Brel singing was unveiled in Brussels in 2017.

Brel also acted in 10 films from 1967 to 1973, two of which he directed. In addition, he adapted and translated the stage musical Man of La Mancha as L’Homme de la Mancha, and he both directed and played the lead in 1968 in Brussels and in a 1968–69 staging in Paris.


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Michel Legrand

Michel Legrand has made his fame and fortune from writing for films, but he has done significant work in jazz on an occasional basis. In 1957, he arranged a set of Dixieland and swing standards for a French orchestra (recorded on Philips), in 1958 he used three different all-star groups for the classic Legrand Jazz (with such sidemen as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Phil Woods, Herbie Mann, Bill Evans, Ben Webster, Art Farmer, and others), in 1968 he recorded a strictly jazz set with a trio and Legrand has written for albums led by Stan Getz (1971), Sarah Vaughan (1972), and on several occasions, Phil Woods. Several of his songs (such as 'What Are You Doing the Rest of Your...
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Michel Legrand has made his fame and fortune from writing for films, but he has done significant work in jazz on an occasional basis. In 1957, he arranged a set of Dixieland and swing standards for a French orchestra (recorded on Philips), in 1958 he used three different all-star groups for the classic Legrand Jazz (with such sidemen as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Phil Woods, Herbie Mann, Bill Evans, Ben Webster, Art Farmer, and others), in 1968 he recorded a strictly jazz set with a trio and Legrand has written for albums led by Stan Getz (1971), Sarah Vaughan (1972), and on several occasions, Phil Woods. Several of his songs (such as "What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life," "Watch What Happens," and "The Summer Knows") have been recorded many times by jazz musicians.

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Press

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Videos

Ralph Rousseau with Lenny Kuhr
Ralph Rousseau Matangi Hein van de Geyn
Ralph Rousseau Hein Van de Geyn recording session
Ralph Rousseau - rehearsals Cent Mille Chansons

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