Galerie des glaces

The pieces in this collection, recorded in September 2020 at the Sextan studios, are Karol Beffa's fourth CD of improvisations. Once again, his audience suggested the themes.

In some cases, the musician drew on various eras to feed his inspiration. In Angelus, a mystical dimension is incorporated into an intentionally archaic framework which evokes Gregorian plainchant. Sarabande funèbre, Le Songe du Cantor and Souvenir de Leipzig are all touched by a slightly romanticised Baroque. More overtly romantic in comparison, Rosamunde flirts with Frankish harmonies, while Adagietto makes explicit references to Mahler through its overlapping structure. As for Calamity Jane and Birdland, their rhythmic shimmy gives them a distinctly jazzy feel.

With Las Meninas and Nights in the Gardens of Spain, the audience is drawn into a spatial rather than a temporal disorientation, as the improviser takes them to a Spain of fantasized Moorish architecture.

Another series of pieces features characters: a playful Charlot, a disjointed puppet; a Joueur de vielle, reminiscent of Schubertian music; a Funambule who wobbles on his musical rope, torn between the attraction and repulsion of the void.

Particular sound effects have sometimes been sought. In Fragments d'explosifs, these take the form of explosions, which tear apart an anguished musical fabric woven of gasping and choking. The tinkling of bells is scattered throughout Carillon nocturne and Clocher englouti. And the hypnotic power they create is echoed in the pulsating pedal play of Drops and Le Belvédère. As for Piano préparé (and its anagrammatic twin Opéra en papier), the title speaks for itself.

Finally, Kafka's Nightmare and Escher's Woodcuts imprison the audience in a geometric labyrinth of false perspectives and endless staircases.

Born of very simple musical material, the piece that gives its title to the CD, Galerie des glaces, draws the listener into multiple games of reflection and refraction.

Claude BRUNET

Reviews on... -> Pizzicato - RFI/Vous m'en direz des nouvelles - Radio Coteaux - Froggy's delight - Classica

1.    Kafka's Nightmare
2.    Birdland 
3.    Las Meninas
4.    Piano préparé
5.    Le Songe du Cantor
6.    Nights in the Gardens of Spain
7.    Adagietto
8.    Drops
9.    Le Belvédère
10.    Charlot
11.    Le Joueur de vielle
12.    Le Funambule
13.    Angelus
14.    Fragments d'explosifs
15.    Galerie des glaces
16.    Sarabande funèbre
17.    Opéra en papier
18.    Le Clocher englouti
19.    Calamity Jane
20.    Rosamunde
21.    Carillon nocturne
22.    Souvenir de Leipzig
23.    Escher's Woodcuts