50/50
50/50
Henry Purcell
Crown the Altar ("Celebrate this Festival", Z 321)
David Chalmin
Music for a while (based on "Music for a while" by H. Purcell)
A : Music For A While
B : Hypnotic Cycles
C : Another Song
Martyn Harry
STAB (based on Les Matassins by J.B. Lully)
David Chalmin
Let me freeze again (based on King Arthur by H. Purcell)
Martyn Harry
Courante and Sarabande
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Les Matassins (Xerxès ballet, LWV 12)
Gigue (Toulouse ballet, LWV 13)
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
"Sans frayeur"
Martyn Harry
Pastorale (based on Actéon by M.A. Charpentier)
David Chalmin
Ground Z (based on Crown the Altar by H. Purcell)
Axelle Verner, mezzo soprano
Le Concert de l’Hostel Dieu
Franck-Emmanuel Comte, organ and musical direction
Gaultier Durhin, visual conception and scenography
On stage:
1 soloist, 10 instrumentalists (string quintet, bassoon/flute, oboe/flute, theorbo/guitar, organ)
A cross between baroque sounds and contemporary creations, between French and English aesthetics.
Half Baroque, half contemporary, half French, half British: this is the challenge taken up here by Franck-Emmanuel Comte and Le Concert de L'Hostel Dieu. 50/50 presents in the same programme pieces by Lully and by Purcell, together with contemporary creations by the Frenchman David Chalmin, inspired by Purcell but also jazz/rock and minimalism, and the British composer Martyn Harry, inspired by Lully. Both contemporary composers combine the sounds of Baroque instruments with their own expression, thus removing borders and engaging in a dialogue involving different periods and different languages. Axelle Verner lends her mezzo voice and her unique personality to the vocal pages of this programme.
LET ME FREEZE AGAIN : THE VIDEO CLIP
50/50 : THE INTERVIEWS
EXTRACT FROM THE CONCERT
50/50'S PICTURES
LISTEN TO THE ALBUM
FRANCE INTER | 06.09.2022 | Stéphane Capron (14')
"The album is rich in diverse sounds."
"A poetic work [clip], beautiful to watch on youtube."
FRANCE MUSIQUE | 19.09.2022 | Emilie Munera (52')
"A very interesting program, which gets off the beaten tracks."
CLASSIQUE MAIS PAS HAS BEEN | 23.09.2022 | Claire de Castellane
"A spinning, heady, silky and strangely timeless music."
"The disc 50-50, gives to hear with talent that the contemporary music does not always answer the injunction to make new."
CONCERTCLASSIC | 25.09.2022 | Laurent Bury
"These different forms of hybridization are quite seductive, and the ensemble finds its usual sound to interpret with vigor two gigues composed by Lully."
RESMUSICA | 30.09.2022 | Jean-Luc Clairet
"50/50 sees ten musicians playing the six immediately seductive compositions, especially those of Chalmin: we can't resist his versions of Music for a while, Let me Freeze again or this amazing Ground Z."
TÉLÉRAMA | 27.10.2022 | Sophie Bourdais
"...the instrumentalists and mezzo-soprano Anaïs Bertrand so skilfully interwove the baroque of Purcell and Lully with the post-minimalist pieces of Martyn Harry and David Chalmin that we soon gave up trying to work out who had done what, when and on which side of the Channel."
LA JORNADA | 26/08/2023 | Pablo Espinosa
"This is an album of exuberant beauty, full of details, winks and allusions. It recaptures the timeless sense of baroque music, whose influence endures to this day."
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Produced by Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu
With the support of Diaphonique, the Franco-British Fund for Contemporary Music, in partnership with Sacem, the Friends of the French Institute of the United Kingdom, the British Council, the French Ministry of Culture, the French Institute, the Centre national de la musique, the Fondation Salabert, Crédit Agricole Centre-Est and the Caisse d'Epargne.
With the support of the Maison de la Musique Contemporaine, the Centre National de la Musique and the Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
In partnership with the London festival of baroque music, Oxford University, the Ambronay Festival, Label Aparté and Libelo Productions.
