Therese Brenet (b 1935) - Le Visionnaire

a bio:

Thérèse Brenet (born 22 October 1935 in Paris, France) is a French composer. She studied at the Conservatoire de Reims and since 1954 the Conservatoire de Paris. Among her teachers were Maurice Duruflé, Henri Dutilleux, Darius Milhaud, and Jean Rivier. In 1965 she won the Prix de Rome for her Les Visions prophétiques de Cassandre; a prize which enabled her to pursue further studies at the French Academy in Rome. She went on to win the Halphen Prize for fugue and composition and won the Coplay Foundation of Chicago's composition prize. She is also an honorary member of the National Academy of History in Reims

Let start with some autopromo :)

Some months ago, i released my very first chamber music album. the works of a fantastic and unknown composer from France.
20 tracks and i must confess... i am not in all of them.
But ! Everything is a world premiere. Not so bad for a first cd ;)

I was lucky enough to perform with my very dear friends from Monaco: Eric Zorgnotti and his wonderful ensemble "The Paris Virtuosii". And such wonderful musicians :
Michel Goddard performing the Serpent (snake? you know this strange instrument, ancestor of the trumpet)
Paul Wehage wonderful Sax player and great composer as well


But let stop the nice words and go straight to the points:

You can find a link and listen (for free?) to the album there :

https://itunes.apple.com/fr/album/therese-brenet-le-visionnaire/id602384435

and buy it there :
http://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=8913018

How i met the composer:

Like everytime i have a very funny story about how i was introduced to her music. Since the story is a little bit long and maybe not so interesting, i will skip many détails.

As some of you knows, or noticed, in my concert repertory i allways do my best to include some contemporary music, or with preferance XXI century music ( for me means composed the very same years, or not very old).
With Paul (Wehage) we had some common friends and i performed pièces from his catalogue (he is also a musical editor, and release scores of Cooman, Cano, Tailleferre...very active musical label).
Once we finally met, and after a very nice talk Paul introduced me to the music of Mademoiselle Thérèse Brenet (as she really prefers to be refered as, and not "Madame" as i did the mistake at the very begining ...). He gave me many scores, and i really loved them at first sight !!!

The result was very simple, 3 days after the meeting, i had a recital in Istambul, and i asked at the very last minute to change a little the program, and add one piece of Brenet : Le Chant d'un monde lointain (here is a video of the concert)




Melle Brenet was so happy with the rendition, that a recording project was initiated. As Paul asked me if i knew a quartet, my first idea was to ask if it would be possible to do it with my Monaco friends.

The result is very good. I had the honor to meet and work with Melle Brenet some pièces and she was very happy with my "harsh" way to see hers music, away from the delicate french touch, as her music is a mixture of galactic explosions and moments of pure meditative weightlessness.

On the cd i am performing on those pièces :
Quintette
De Bronze Et De Lumière
Dans L'or Vibrant Du Désert
Boustrophédon (this one was very hard !!!)
Le Visionnaire

There is a plan to record her 2 pianos concerti, but .... not yet... anyway i am really looking forward it, as the score are fantastic (and Melle Brenet herself told me to "take care of hers concerti" ! )

Wishing you a nice discovery !!!


little update :

As i requested it when i was preparing the album with Melle Brenet, she finally composed her very first piano sonata and ..... it is dedicated to me !! [mode very proud on] :)