Composer: Gabriel Fauré, Harold Arlen, Edgar Yipsel Harburg, Michel Portal, Richard Strauss, Kurt Weill, Maxwell Anderson, Frank Loesser, George Gershwin, Philip Glass, Fazil Say, Thomas Enhco, Antonín Dvořák, Ariel Ramirez, Felix Luna, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Carlos Guastavino, Camille Saint-Saëns, Benjamin Cotto, Nili Hadida, Henry Mancini, Ludovico Einaudi, Astor Piazzolla, Patricia Petibon, Thierry Escaich, Nils Frahm, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, Alan Stivell, Cécile Corbel, Ernest Bloch, Baptiste Trotignon, George David Weiss, Robert Thiele
Performer: Christian-Pierre La Marca, Nathanaël Gouin, Baptiste Trotignon, Sabine Devieilhe, Thomas Enhco, Patricia Petibon, Thierry Escaich, Edouard Macarez, Félicien Brut, Lilly Wood And The Prick
Orchestra: Members of the Orchestre de Paris
Number of Discs: 2
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Naïve
Catalogue: V7362
Release: 2021
Size: 1.94 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
CD 01
01. Fauré: Après un rêve, Op. 7 No. 1
02. Arlen, Harburg: Over the Rainbow
03. Portal: Habanera
Strauss: 4 Lieder, Op. 27
04. No. 4, Morgen!
05. Weill, Anderson: Lost in the Stars
Loesser: Guys and Dolls:
06. I’ve Never Been in Love Before
07. Gershwin: Summertime
08. Glass: The Hours: The Poet Acts
Say: Four Cities:
09. No. 1, Sivas
10. No. 2, Hopa
11. Enhco: Prelude (Of Wind and Water)
Dvořák: The Bohemian Forest, Op. 68
12. Silent Wood
13. Ramirez, Luna: Alfonsina y el mar
Rimsky-Korsakov: The Tale of Tsar Saltan
14. Flight of the Bumblebee
15. Guastavino: La rosa y el sauce
Saint-Saëns: Le carnaval des animaux, R. 125
16. No. 13, Le cygne
17. Cotto, Hadida: You Want My Money
CD 02
01. Mancini: Moon River
02. Einaudi: I giorni
Piazzolla: Las cuatro estaciones porteñas
03. No. 2, Invierno porteño
04. Petibon, Marca, Escaich: Awake of Nature (improvisation)
Frahm: Wintermusik
05. No. 1, Ambre
06. Petibon, Marca, Escaich: Between Man and Nature (improvisation)
Tchaikovsky: Six Morceaux pour piano, Op. 51
07. No. 6, Valse sentimentale
08. trad.: Celtic Valse
09. trad., Corbel, Stivell: Brian Boru Renaissance
Bloch: From Jewish Life, B. 54
10. No. 1, Prayer
11. Trotignon: Fly
12. Weiss, Thiele: What a Wonderful World
In this humanistic ode de to nature, French cellist Christian-Pierre La Marca presents a packed programme on the theme of saving the planet. He has invited a host of artists from all over the international music scene to add their voices to that of his own eloquent instrument, in a unique and unprecedented project of solidarity. “Wonderful World” is a project of multiple inputs, all converging on Christian-Pierre La Marca’s awareness of the need to save our planet. As he explains, “music has the ability to awaken consciences, to make people more sensitive, without trying to convince or mobilize them. Music is a short circuit that goes straight to the heart”.
His sense of engagement has already found artistic expression in his creation of the “Concert for the Planet” in 2019. Today it is embodied in this multi-ethnic album of many-voiced solidarity featuring classical, neoclassical, world music and jazz, all intoning the same song of the Earth. Songs of wonder, questioning, wake up calls, songs of prayer: all are heard in the course of these twenty-six titles, reflected in the images by Yann Arthus-Bertrand inserted in the booklet.
The cello, in the hands of Christian-Pierre La Marca, has often been compared to the human voice, in its handling of the melodic lines and curves, its flexibility, its lyrical intensity. Here it is mirrored in the voices of sopranos Sabine Devieilhe and Patricia Petibon, as well as the clarinet of Michel Portal, the pianos of Thomas Enhco, Baptiste Trotignon, Nathanaël Gouin and Thierry Escaich, the accordion of Félicien Brut and the contrabass of Édouard Macarez, as well as the pop duo Lilly Wood & The Prick.
In addition, an ensemble of musicians from the Orchestre de Paris lends its support, with bespoke arrangements of a variety of pieces ranging through Harlen’s Over the Rainbow, Fauré’s song Après un rêve, Summertime by Gershwin, The Swan by Saint-Saëns, I giorni by Ludovico Einaudi, The Hours by Philip Glass, and Kurt Weill’s Lost in the Stars. As La Marca concludes, “this ode to nature is primarily a hymn to the idea of sharing. What I wanted – as well as bringing this programme to fruition – was to have a musical adventure alongside exceptional artists from different worlds and horizons. After all, isn’t that our mission as artists? To share with our audience, to move, to awaken consciences across the world?”.