50-50 Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu, Franck-Emmanuel Comte, Axelle Verner

• Henry Purcell (1659 - 1695): Celebrate this Festival, Z. 321 (Ode for Queen Mary's Birthday):
• 1 Purcell: Celebrate this Festival, Z. 321 (Ode for Queen Mary's Birthday): Crown the Altar (Arr. Franck-Emmanuel Comte) 04:26
• David Chalmin (b. 1980): Music for a While:
• 2 Chalmin: Music for a While: A. Music for a While 02:12
• 3 Chalmin: Music for a While: B. Hypnotic Cycles 07:20
• 4 Chalmin: Music for a While: C. Another Song 02:38
• Martyn Harry: STAB:
• 5 Harry: STAB 07:58
• David Chalmin: Let Me Freeze Again (After Purcell's King Arthur, Z. 628: Aria. What Power art Thou):
• 6 Chalmin: Let Me Freeze Again (After Purcell's King Arthur, Z. 628: Aria. What Power art Thou) 06:58
• Martyn Harry: Courante and Sarabande:
• 7 Harry: Courante and Sarabande 07:04
• Jean-Baptiste Lully (1632 - 1687): Les Matassins (After Xerxès, LWV 12) - Gigue (After Ballet de Toulouse, LWV 13):
• 8 Lully: Les Matassins (After Xerxès, LWV 12) - Gigue (After Ballet de Toulouse, LWV 13) 02:30
• Martyn Harry: Pastorale (After Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Actéon: Actéon's Air):
• 9 Harry: Pastorale (After Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Actéon: Actéon's Air) 05:40
• David Chalmin: Ground Z:
• 10 Chalmin: Ground Z 07:50
• Total Runtime 54:36

Info for 50-50

Half Baroque, half contemporary, half French, half British: that is the challenge taken up here by Franck-Emmanuel Comte and Le Concert de L'Hostel Dieu. This recording presents in the same program pieces by Lully and by Purcell, together with contemporary creations by the Frenchman David Chalmin, inspired by Purcell, and by the British composer Martyn Harry, inspired by Lully. Both contemporary composers combine the sounds of Baroque instruments with their own expression, thus removing borders and engaging in a dialogue involving different periods and different languages. Axelle Verner lends her mezzo voice and unique personality to the vocal pieces in this program.

Axelle Verner, mezzo-soprano
Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu
Franck-Emmanuel Comte, harpsichord, organ, direction

Axelle Verner
A dancer, a draughtswoman and a great curiosity, it is through these different arts that Axelle Verner nourishes her singing practice and seeks a wide range of vocal colours. She graduated from the Maîtrise de Notre-Dame de Paris, then from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon in Robert Expert's singing and early music class, and is currently studying at Cécile de Boever's Pôle Lyrique d'Excellence. Axelle Verner won the third prize at the International Baroque Singing Competition in Froville in 2019. She regularly performs as a soloist with numerous ensembles such as La Tempête (S.-P. Bestion), Les Kapsber'girls (A. Imbs), La Capella Sanctae Crucis (T. Simas Freire), Vox Cantoris (J.-C. Candau), Concerto Soave (J.-M. Aymes), Correspondances (S. Daucé), Le Concert de l'Hostel Dieu (F.-E. Comte).

As a painter, Axelle Verner likes to mix genres and creates recitals where vocal art is mixed with graphic arts (Le Fil d'Ariane, amphitheatre of the Opéra de Lyon; master recital at the CNSMDL). With the Concerto Soave, she sings the role of Nunzia in La Libération de Ruggiero, (Francesca Caccini). Through the CNSMD of Lyon, Axelle Verner is Ottavia in The Coronation of Poppea (Monteverdi) and Dido in the opera Dido and Aeneas (Purcell).

She is also a researcher, working in partnership with a doctoral student in linguistics and a doctoral student in musicology on the subject of music publishing during the Renaissance. With this trio, she participates in several colloquia and seminars such as the seminar on general metrics at the Sorbonne and the Morimondo colloquium in Italy.

The inventiveness and freedom of the baroque musical language and the singularity of the sounds of its instruments appeal to contemporary creators, including Englishman Martyn Harry and Frenchman David Chalmin. These two brilliant composers from the post-minimalist movement share a real enthusiasm for associating the rich sounds of Baroque instruments with their own language. 50/50 brings together two contemporary creations for Baroque instruments in the same program. One by David Chalmin, inspired by Purcell's music, the other by Martyn Harry, inspired by Lully's work.

Booklet for 50-50