“Spring in the Soul” reflects the spirit of a beautiful artistic and human encounter. This exciting program is a reflection of our duo: voluble, emphatic, sometimes festive, it also includes moments of contemplation and dream, like “pauses” in the midst of a whirlwind of playful virtuosity. Similar to Horovitz’s sonatina or Bernstein’s sonata, jazz as an inspiration seems to subtly permeate almost all the works in this program. Its unique harmonies, sharp rhythms, occasional humor reminiscent of silent film music in Dartevelle’s piece, as well as languid ballads worthy of a piano bar atmosphere, will offer the listener a musical change of scenery. Often, when a composer wishes to evoke a continent by drawing inspiration from its musical folklore, it arises from a need for exoticism or nostalgia for a country they may have traversed. This is the case with Darius Milhaud, a lover of Brazil, whose piece “Scaramouche” transforms the traditional character of the Commedia dell’ Arte into a pilgrim-traveler touched in his comical soul by Brazilian “saudade” and the Samba of Rio’s carnival. There is also a musical and acoustic change of scenery in Claude Debussy’s famous “Première Rhapsodie,” with its free and narrative structure reminiscent of the odes of ancient Greek poets, taking the listener by the “ear” to tell a story, filled with aquatic and iridescent sounds. Finally, the world of childhood, a territory of playfulness and mischief, as seen in Jean Françaix’s piece, where the pretext of a memorable game of hide-and-seek between a grandfather and his grandson serves as a basis for variations that are acrobatic and contrasting in nature.
The Anthemis duo was born in 2017 out of an irresistible need for chamber music on the part of its two protagonists, both originally from Nancy. One, a concert pianist and professor at the Metz Conservatory, the other, the principal clarinetist of the National Orchestra of Metz Grand-Est. These kindred spirits recognized each other behind the scenes and in the antechambers of the beautiful concert halls where they have had the privilege of performing regularly. For six years now, they have tirelessly explored the most beautiful pages of French, English, American, and German chamber music in order to offer them to you generously in concerts and recordings, without artifice, like a beautiful bouquet of freshly picked wildflowers.