This is the story of two young musicians who met during the Coronavirus lockdown, of all things. Daniel Hope invited the French violist Adrien La Marca to appear on his Arte programme "Hope@home" last December. For the first time, his duo partner was the German-Greek pianist Danae Dörken. And already the idea was born: why not work together on a new project that transcends the frontiers of countries and musical genres? The result was a new programme featuring classical music, French traditional music, film music and chansons, which the pair have now recorded...
At the heart of the recording are the Albumblätter of the Bohemian-German composer Hans Sitt, a violist and contemporary of Johannes Brahms. These "album leaves" are masterpieces of salon music that are far too rarely found in concert programmes. Alongside them are other little gems by Antonín Dvořák, Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky and Brahms himself, but also French delicacies by Francis Poulenc and Erik Satie. More modern repertory is represented by Frank Bridge, Nadia Boulanger and Philip Glass. The two famous chansons, Hubert Giraud’s Sous le ciel de Paris and of course Aznavour’s La Bohème, exude a special charm. An album offering profundity, surprising associations, yet also a typically "bohemian" light-heartedness that enabled the two artists – but not only them! – to forget the dreariness of concert-deprived times. © La Dolce Volta