Gianluigi Trovesi, Gianni Coscia
Frère Jacques - Round about Offenbach
- Type CD
- Label ECM
- UPC 0602527811352
- Catalog number ECM 2781135
- Release date 27 October 2011
About the album
This is the third album in a series of Gianluigi Trovesi and Gianni Coscia, following on from “In Cerca di cibo” and “Round About Weill”, discs which honoured respectively Milanese composer Fiorenzo Carpi and Kurt Weill with affectionate, free and witty reinterpretations. They now travel, by the scenic route, “Round about Offenbach”. Their composed and improvised responses to Offenbach revolve around their arrangements of his works including selections from “La Belle Hélène”, “La Périchole”, “La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein”, and “Les Contes d’Hoffmann”.
Offenbach, French composer of German origin (born in Cologne in 1819) wrote some of the 19th century’s most effervescent music, with a sly disregard for highbrow tastes, largely unconcerned whether his work was regarded as high art, certainly unafraid of frivolity. He gleefully parodied Wagner and other cultural icons in ingenious music that could be beautiful and highly satirical by turns, frequently playing with levels and degrees of “seriousness” and “sincerity”. But craftsmanship was a given: his pieces were always meticulously made, as even opponents were forced to allow. Debussy, through gritted teeth, called Offenbach “a gifted musician who hated music.”
As a popular composer who remained an outsider, rarely fêted by the critics, he holds a particular appeal for Trovesi and Coscia, who have a long history of siding with cultural anti-heroes, in particular happily waving banners for exponents of art forms alleged to be “minor” – in this case, the operetta. For Gianluigi and Gianni, Offenbach’s a comrade, a soul brother, “Frère Jacques.”
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11Sognando Hélene/ Oui! c'est un rêve06:48
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12Ah! que les hommes sont bêtes/ Mon dieu, Mon dieu02:09
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13Piff, Paff, Pouff/ La Duchessa nei caraibi03:51
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14Tangoffenbach04:32
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15Ah! vivre deux/ L'eccentrico inventore04:02
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16Et moi?/ No, to no!02:08
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17La voix03:03
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18Parton le barcarole03:53
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19Beguine del fauno02:44
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110Sei Italiano?/ No!... Je suis Brésilien06:08
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111La Duchessa della Czarda02:05
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112C'est une chanson d'amour01:17
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113Galop... trotterellando07:29
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114Le jugement de Paris/ Ma! Non so!05:57
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115Dedicated to Hélene and her little birds05:14
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116Metamorfosi... Pour séduire04:41
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117Minuetto/ Olympia02:19
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118Ouverture/ Un Americano a Troia04:28
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119Epilogue01:25