Anne Queffelec – Entrez dans la danse… (2017) [Qobuz FLAC 24bit/96kHz]

„Join in the dance . . . See how we dance!“ And then „Kiss whoever you like!“ Well, that remains to be seen . . .

„My mother doesn’t want me to go dancing“: Adèle, in her white dress and golden waistband, disobeys and drowns beneath the Pont du Nord, which collapses while a dance is going on.

„Join in the dance . . .“ The points of suspension in that ellipsis suggest the suspension of dance steps, of hopes, desires, regrets: how many songs disguised as dances here tell us of sorrowing hearts!

Dead and living Infantas cross paths in this anthology. Nostalgic grace in the Valse nonchalante of Saint-Saëns, vanished youth in Poulenc’s Le Bal fantôme and Chabrier’s Feuillet d’album, the childhood snow that dances in Debussy’s prélude as if recalling Villon’s poem lamenting the ‘snows of yesteryear’, the heartrending uncertainty of Franck’s Danse lente, love disturbed by ennui and danger in Hahn, the uneasily awkward harmonies of Satie’s Danse de travers . . . Over and above the grace, the diversion, the charm that the mere word ‘dance’ calls to mind, as soon as a great composer merges with a form, the pavan or the waltz, he takes us elsewhere than to a ball, or rather makes us realise that every ball is a masquerade. Eros and Thanatos clasp each other and twirl about the dance floor.

Since the dawn of time, people have danced at a birth, a death, a wedding, a battle, to defy or seduce. And the courtship ritual of pink amingos is a primeval ballet. In the womb, the foetus enthusiastically discovers the use of its limbs. David danced before the Ark of the Covenant, and, in similar ecstasy, Monsieur Jourdain, Molière’s Bourgeois Gentilhomme, aspired to grace under the tutelage of his dancing master. Music can dispense with dance, but dance cannot dispense with music for long.

Tracklist

1. Frederico Mompou: Chanson et Danse No. 4
2. Maurice Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte, M. 19
3. Maurice Ravel: Valse noble et sentimentale, No. 2, M. 61
4. Claude Debussy: Children’s corners, L. 113: IV. The snow is dancing
5. Emmanuel Chabrier: Cinq pièces pour piano: IV. Feuillet d’album. En un mouvement assez lent de valse, et très tendrement
7. Guy Ropartz: Dans l’ombre de la montagne: V. Ronde
8. Renaldo Hahn: Le rossignol éperdu, Premiere Suite: XXI. Danse de l’Amour et de l’Ennui
9. Florent Schmitt: Une semaine du petit elfe Ferme-l’Oeil, Op. 58: V. La ronde des lettres boiteuses
10. Francis Poulenc: Suite française d’après Claude Gervaise, FP 80: V. Bransle de Champagne
11. Jules Massenet: Valse folle
12. Francis Poulenc: Suite française d’après Claude Gervaise, FP 80: II. Pavane
13. Claude Debussy: Petite suite, L. 65: IV. Ballet
14. Maurice Ravel: Menuet antique, M. 7
15. Claude Debussy: Khamma, L. 125
16. Camille Saint-Saëns: Valse nonchalante en Ré-Bémol Majeur, Op. 110
17. Eric Satie: Pièces froides: II. Danses de travers
18. Gabriel Pierné: Valse impromptu, Op. 27
19. Renaldo Hahn: Le rossignol éperdu, Premiere Suite: XXVII. Danse de l’Amour et du Danger
20. Francis Poulenc: 8 Nocturnes, FP 56: IV. Le bal fantôme
21. Gabriel Fauré: Suite Dolly, Op. 56: VI. Le pas espagnol
22. César Franck: Danse lente, FWV 22
23. Claude Debussy: 6 Épigraphes antiques, L. 131: IV. Pour la danseuse aux crotales
24. Francis Poulenc: Suite française d’après Claude Gervaise, FP 80: VI. Sicilienne
25. Ernest Chausson: Quelques Danses pour piano, Op. 26: III. Pavane