Complete Cello Works
Alexis Decharmes, cello
Roger Reynolds, speaker*
Thoughts, Places, Dreams (2013) 24:00
for cello solo & chamber orchestra
Ensemble Court-circuit, Jean Deroyer, conductor
Colombi Daydream (2010) 7:48
for cello
“In the Dark” 1:02
reading of James Merrill*
Focus a beam, emptied of thinking, outward… (1989) 11:13
for cello
imagE/cello (2007) 4:47
for cello
imagE/cello (2007) 4:30
for cello
“It was because of evil that the Furies were born…” 2:22
reading of Aeschylus*
Process and Passion2:22
for violin, cello & computer processed sound
Nicolas Miribel, violin
Frédéric Voisin, electronics
“How can I find words…” 3:25
reading of Aeschylus*
A Crimson Path (2000-02) 26:45
for cello & piano
Sébastien Vichard, piano
This first complete recording of Roger Reynolds’ cello works is being released to celebrate the composer’s 80th birthday. This special composer supervised 2-CD set contains many first recordings.
Some of the works are interspersed with Reynolds’ reading of texts which specifically relate to the compositions.
Focus a beam, emptied of thinking, outward… was inspired by the writings of James Merrill. Says Reynolds: “My thought was to write a work that had the feel and dimensionality of a spiritual exercise: a very slow pulsation, breath-like, that would, in three larger stages, become gradually more animated, ending with a “lightening” of its somber beginning, a section that would by then be moving notably faster than the opening.”
Process and Passion was written for Descharmes and Mirabel. Here, computer-processed sounds, based upon recorded segments from the violin and cello materials, function to extend and elaborate the influence of various source images so that the computer cues act sometimes as remote shadowings that inflect, and at others as extra-human forces which the two live soloists must accommodate.
imagE/cello and imAge/cello were also written for Descharmes, with (to quote Reynolds) “both the individual himself and his characteristic incandescence—in mind.” The first is a luminous and ringing exploration shaped first by rising and then descending sequences of harmonics. The second is constructed as a texture of incessant, forcefully strummed chords.
Thoughts, Places, Dreams is a further exploration of the “Image” pieces for solo cello, and is dedicated to both Descharmes and to Ensemble Court-circuit and its director Philippe Hurel.
French cellist Alexis Descharmes and Roger Reynolds have a close artistic relationship which led to this composer supervised set.
Liner notes by Reynolds and Alexis Descharmes.