Composer: Harold Arlen, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Jacques Brel, Nacio Herb Brown, Antonín Dvořák, Edvard Hagerup Grieg, Bert Kaempfert, Michel Legrand, Ennio Morricone, Sergei Prokofiev, Giacomo Puccini, Bedrich Smetana, Heitor Villa-Lobos, John Towner Williams
Performer: Gautier Capuçon, Jérôme Ducros, Lucienne Renaudin Vary, Anouchka Hack, Aurélien Pascal, Caroline Sypniewski, Charles Hervet, Fatma Said, Jeein You, Julia Hagen
Orchestra: Orchestre National de Bretagne
Conductor: Johanna Malangré
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Erato
Catalogue: 9029615713
Release: 2022
Size: 1.55 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Arlen: Over the Rainbow
02. Prokofiev: Dance of the Knights (From “Romeo and Juliet”, Op. 64)
03. anon.: Amazing grace
04. Brown: Singin’ in the Rain
05. Williams: Schindler’s List: Theme
06. Kaempfert: L-O-V-E
07. Louiguy: La vie en rose
08. Barber: Adagio for Strings, Op. 11
09. Francois, Revaux: Comme d’habitude
10. Morricone: The Mission: Gabriel’s Oboe
11. Villa-Lobos: Bachianas brasileiras No. 5, W389: I. Ária. Cantilena
12. Dvořák: Slavonic Dances, Op. 72, B. 147: No. 2 in E Minor
13. Smetana: Die Moldau (From “Má vlast”, JB 1:112)
14. Grieg: In the Hall of the Mountain King (From “Peer Gynt”, Op. 23)
15. Puccini: Nessun dorma (From “Turandot”)
16. Legrand: Les Parapluies de Cherbourg
17. Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95, B. 178 “From the New World”: II. Poco adagio
18. Legrand: The Windmills of your Mind
19. Brel: Quand on n’a que l’amour
20. Bernstein: Mambo (From “West Side Story”)
The crossover album is not quite as highly developed a genre in France as it is in Britain and the U.S., but cellist Gautier Capuçon is having great success with a sequence of single-word-titled albums. Sensations, released in 2022, is the latest, and it makes a fine place to try these out for listeners in France or anywhere else. Indeed, part of what makes Capuçon’s program work here is its variety; much of the material is not French, and the French pieces often have some kind of twist. Fans of Frank Sinatra, for instance, may not have known the French origin of one of his most famous songs. It is a rare European album of any kind that would include a rendition of Amazing Grace, and both Capuçon’s placement and his performance of this melody are haunting. Capuçon mixes orchestral, small-group, and piano-accompanied pieces of both classical and pop origin. In the classical pieces, his arrangers serve him well, putting the cello front and center while keeping the flavors of the originals. The end result is a collection of favorites, remade for the cello, that maintains its variety and never cloys. This album is a superior and totally fresh example of its type.
Gautier Capuçon’s follow-up to his best-selling album Emotions, some tracks with long-standing partner Jérôme Ducros on piano, who also made some arrangements for this album. Most repertoire with the Orchestre National de Bretagne, conducted by Johanna Malangré. A mix of popular music: classical (Smetana’s Moldau), film (John Williams’s Schindler’s List), and well-known French songs (“La Vie en Rose”, Jacques Brel’s “Quand on n’a que l’amour”). Featuring two young stars from our label: Lucienne Renaudin Vary in Bert Kaempfert’s L-O-V-E and Fatma Saïd in Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas Brasileiras. Some tracks were recorded with young cellists from Capuçon’s class at the Louis Vuitton Foundation.