Cyprès presents a new CD « Grace in exile » with a trilogy of concertos by Belgian composer and organist Benoît Mernier, associated on this project with three different orchestras and conductors, and two great soloists. 

The first concerto for violin and orchestra, written in 2015, is dedicated to violinist Lorenzo Gatto who is on this CD accompanied by the Orchestre National de Belgique under the direction of Russian conductor Andrey Boreyko. This concerto was composed to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the World War I. Two movements take your imagination on quite a journey: the “Hear the vehement Earth” gives at first a metaphor for the dead soldiers and chaos of war, and the second movement “Grace Exile” (name taken from Guillaume Apollinaire) using materials from dozens of soldiers’ letters to theirs dearest, together with the beautiful music express the hope and dreams despite the horrible context. 

Second piece, Vi(v)a!, is a playful overture for orchestra written in 2010 for orchestra’s 50th anniversary is beautifully played by Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liege, under the direction of British conductor Paul Daniel. And finally, we discover the Concerto for piano and orchestra, written in 2008, commissioned by Festival de Wallonie, where it premiered in 2008 during the festival opening, under Pascal Rophé. Here we have a live recording from 2014 at the Opéra Berlioz, performed by pianist David Lively and Orchestre national de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon, conducted by Catalan conductor Ernest Marténez Ozquierdo. This piece breaks the classical “fast-slow-fast” construction of a concerto and plays with listener’s temporal psychology, who is then unable to say if the movement is slow or fast (for example by using a slow scherzo).

One hour of beautiful concertos takes you for a journey of Benoît Mernier’s music, often associated with a characteristic and distinctive language, so take an opportunity to, though this CD, entry the inner sanctum of Mernier’s music.

Adela Pudlakova