Musica Franca
Sonate No. 2
Le Phenix
Musica Franca was wonderful group of bassoonists, lutenists and keyboardists, including me, Mathieu Lussier, Fraser Jackson, Catherine Carrignan (for shows), Kathleen McLean (third bn), Paul Jenkins (harpsichord/organ), Sylvain Bergeron(lute/theorbo), Terry McKenna (guitar/lute) and Richard Paré (organ/harpsichord) recorded by David Bowles.
This was another album done on my former black Heckel #13479 and you can start to hear much more vitality in the sound after a few more years away from being a well-behaved second bassoonist. Still very supple and flexible, but much more shine to the line.
We recorded two albums with this group… the Corrette with the complete sonatas, Le Phénix and the organ concerto, and the very popular Boismoriter disc with Mathieu Lussier taking lead.
Fraser Jackson wrote a very good story of the group with photos and press. And the whole album is wonderful, with all 6 sonatas from Les Délices de la Solitude and Le Phénix plus one of Corrette’s groovy organ concertos arranged by Fraser for bassoon orchestra and solo organ… we wanted to showcase our valiant keyboardist!
Corrette recording sessions
This album is available online… try my label or my spotify for artists
Berceuse & Concertino
Berceuse
Concertino
David Swan is one of Canada’s most gloriously fluent and musical pianists. I was fortunate to perform with him for a few years, and record two albums together (Ever After with Prokofiev Sonata and Notes From Abroad). We played 4 Love Songs by Mathieu Lussier on this album. David was playing from a pencilled chord sheet, improvising his part, so if I made an error, we had to do a complete retake just because David made up new beauties every time. After a few years, Mathieu took pity on pianists and created a published version (linked above).
I am playing my former black Heckel #13479 in these two works. Such a lithe and supple bassoon, you can hear the influence of my decade as second bassoon with the Orchestra Symphonique de Montréal… very musical yet very contained and highly civilized to the point of almost being restrained (imagine!). I now explore far greater ranges of colour and expression, yet I enjoy hearing my work from these earlier days.
