For those who love Philippe Sarde, you can listen here to the concert dedicated to him last Thursday, in his presence, by the Orchestre National de France. Enjoy!
Orchestre National de France Mei-Ann Chen (direction) Sarah Nemtanu (violon solo) Stéphane Chausse (saxophone, flûtes) Khalil Chahine (guitares) Christophe Cravero (claviers) Pierre Boussaguet (contrebasse) Daniel Ciampolini (batterie) Lionel Suarez (accordéon, bandonéon)
Le Concert #1
Portraits de Claude Sautet (arrangement Dimitri Soudoplatoff) Vincent, François, Paul et les autres Un mauvais fils Garçon ! Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud
Suite pour piano (arrangement Dimitri Soudoplatoff) Les choses de la vie Hôtel des Amériques Beau-Père Alexandre Tharaud (piano)
L'arabe (la valise) (arrangement Didier Benetti) Fatma Saïd (soprano)
Suite Alain Delon (arrangement Dimitri Soudoplatoff) La veuve Couderc Deux hommes dans la ville Les seins de galce Mort d'un pourri
Suite Romy Schneider (arrangement Dimitri Soudoplatoff) César et Rosalie Mado Le train Une histoire simple
Le Concert #2
Suite cinéma romanesque (arrangement Dimitri Soudoplatoff) Fort Saganne Music Box Harem Barocco Tess
Grande Suite des cinéastes (arrangement Dimitri Soudoplatoff) Le sucre - Jacques Rouffio Coup de torchon - Bertrand Tavernier Le juge Fayard dit "le Shériff" - Yves Boisset Flic ou voyou - Georges Lautner La Grande Bouffe - Marco Ferreri Le choix des armes - Alain Corneau La Guerre du feu - Jean-Jacques Annaud
La chanson d'Hélène (Les choses de la vie) (arrangement Didier Benetti) Fatma Saïd (soprano)
To clarify: this is indeed a single concert. The long duration is due to the intermission and the presentations (it's the live recording, without editing).
Two and a half hours! Thanks, I'll make room for that. Looks great.
And sounds great. This was a wonderful, highly emotional concert with a first-class performance by the orchestra and the various soloists. There is such a wealth of terrific and beautiful timeless themes which Sarde had composed for the French cinema of the 70s and 80s and which you get to hear here.
An addendum: In his concert report Dadid writes that LES SEINS DE GLACE was performed within the "Suite Alain Delon". Although it had been announced in this way in the program itself, this was changed for the concert so that the SEINS DE GLACE theme was actually played at the beginning of the highly enjoyable "Piano Suite" by Alexandre Tharaud on the piano. The sequencing of this brilliant nostalgic suite was as follows: LES SEINS DE GLACE, LES CHOSES DE LA VIE, HÔTEL DES AMÉRIQUES and BEAU-PÈRE
For the French-speaking members of the board like Stefan, here's a new interview of Sarde featuring several excerpts from the recent concert held in Paris :
Many thanks, Laurent, for the link to this highly enjoyable new interview. It is indeed very touching to see and hear Sarde´s reactions to some of his scores which had been played during the concert. Luckily, his physical condition seems to have improved a bit and I also have the impression that he speaks more fluently again than in the interviews from one or two years ago. I myself don´t speak French, but I can read French or understand it very well when it is spoken clearly (and not too quickly) which fortunately is the case here. Therefore I have had no problems to understand everything in this interview.
Yes, like you Stefan, I also felt that Sarde was in better shape in this interview. It seems that this tribute concert boosted him a bit. Also, I particularly enjoyed to see filmed sequences from the concert, whereas the podcast was 'just' audio stuff. Let's hope that the whole concert will show up on YT or on DVD someday. As far as I understood it, Sarde hopes that this performance will be repeated.
Hmm... I wasn't aware of any health issues. He's only 75 (just one year older than my father), but glancing at the interview, he does look and speak like someone 10 years older. And that, apparently, is him being sprightlier than usual.
In any case, what a great composer and what I could understand of the interview (with my three years of high school French) was nice. I love his humility.
Hmm... I wasn't aware of any health issues. He's only 75 (just one year older than my father), but glancing at the interview, he does look and speak like someone 10 years older. And that, apparently, is him being sprightlier than usual.
About two or three years ago Sarde suffered a narrowing of his coronary vessels and therefore had to undergo a heart sugery. This weakened him enormously so that he almost couldn´t walk anymore, could speak only very slowly and often looked absent-minded. Just have a look at the video below with him from April 2022 where he was honoured at the Cinémathèque Francaise and you will immediately see what I mean. In the current interview Laurent linked to above he even mentions that only thanks to his wife Clotilde he is still alive - maybe you didn´t notice that sentence, but it is very important if you know the context.
I attended the show. Such a great and moving night. I treasure Sarde's music, the selection was just perfect, the orchestra was top notch conducted by a lady who was really involved and cared a lot for the musicians (she asked the soloists to stand after each piece of music so the audience could cheer them). Among them, on the guitar, was Khalil Chahine who scored some famous French films during the last 30 years.
Oh yes Stefan, I am sorry. Now I see it. Btw, were you also in attendance at Maison de la Radio in Paris for the April 4th concert? I know from your FSM posts history that you are a great fan of french film music...and Sarde is the last living legend from these Silver Ages...
Btw, were you also in attendance at Maison de la Radio for the April 4th concert? I know from your FSM posts history that you are a great fan of french film music...and Sarde is the last living legend from these Silver Ages...
Yes, Sarde is a particular favourite of mine since the end of the 1970s when I had discovered him through TESS and then bought almost each new French LP by him that got released during the following years (and tried to get most of the earlier ones which I didn´t have yet at that time). I had seen the announcement of the concert on the MBR Facebook website only 2 or 3 days before it actually took place. Otherwise I wouldn´t have known about it at all. I then heard the concert live on the France Musique website on that April 4th evening and was very impressed with it. Anyway, for me it would have been a long journey from Germany to attend the concert at the Maison de la Radio in Paris. I also suppose that it was certainly sold out that evening.
