This CD, recorded live at the Petit Palais, recreates the atmosphere of a Parisian Romantic salon, where the musical, literary and artistic elite would mix with with aristocratic and financial circles at George Sand’s, Camille Pleyel’s or the Erards’, at the houses of Princesses Czartoryska, Belgiojoso or Countess Marie d’Agoult, that of Zimmermann, Professor at the Conservatory, at the Tuileries with the royal family, at embassies, at bankers’. These networks helped launch careers. There, one could hear again – transcribed for the piano – arias previously heard at the Opera, discover brand new pieces, organize jousts and improvisation sessions. This record re-enacts this spirit of experimentation and exchanges. The members of La Nouvelle Athènes aim at bringing to light new re-readings of the Romantic repertoire, stimulated by playing on period pianos and the reconstruction of the Romantic aesthetics supported by the study of written testimonies and by listening to the first recordings of the followers of Chopin, Liszt and Clara Schumann. They reconnect us to the sources of the Romantic piano. (Sylvie Brély, founder and director of La Nouvelle Athènes – Centre des pianos romantiques)