A lovely album about music and words

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Ever unpredictable, the enterprising label Bright Shiny Things will soon be releasing INK [BSTC-0148], an impressively conceived debut album from the boundary-breaking Merz Trio.

What an interesting concept it is to juxtapose readings of French poetry from the intensely creative intra-war period of 1914 onwards with French music of that time.

Here three extrodinary artists: pianist Lee Dionne, violinist Brigid Coleridge, and cellist Julia Yang share the poetic and journal works of Jean Cocteau, Charles Péguy, Anna de Noailles, Léon-Paul Fargue, Alain-Fournier, Blaise Cendrars, and Guillaume Apollinaire eloquently read by them back to back with movements from Maurice Ravel’s 1914 trio for piano, cello and violin, Lili Boulanger’s D’un vieux jardin, Nadia Boulanger’s Heures terns, Claude Debussy’s La plus que lente, Mélanie Bonis’ Morning, and Zortziko/Fandango, an original composition by the trio’s pianist Lee Dionne.

Not shying away from the world of pop/cabaret music the album includes Sous les ponts de Paris, as an homage to the American chanteuse Josephine Baker, who unbeknownst to many, worked underground in the French resistance during the German occupation of Paris.

Throughout the multiple tracks the trio’s playing is impeccably elegant, earmarked by unmannered musicianship and sui generis stylistic versatility. This listener heartily agrees with the insights put into words in the album’s liner notes:  “INK… is an album about music and words sharing their dark, untidy medium, spilling onto the page as notes and letters, and spoken into the world by voices and instruments… It is about how we put our ear to a distant time and what we might hear there, as well as how we bring these voices into the present…”

Rafael de Acha ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”