Félicien Brut has two loves: his accordion and the city of Paris. The title track of his first Erato album is a song made famous in the 1930s by the trailblazing American singer Josephine Baker, an adoptive Parisienne. J’ai deux amours places Brut’s accordion in a variety of musical contexts as its 17 tracks take the listener on a stroll around Paris, stopping off in a series of neighbourhoods – such as the Champs-Elysées, Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Montmartre – and at such celebrated sights as the Eiffel Tower, Panthéon and Moulin Rouge.
Exploring Paris with Félicien Brut are the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine, conductor Pierre Dumoussaud, and six guest artists: soprano Julie Fuchs; cellist Edgar Moreau; guitarist Thibaut Garcia; double bassist Edouard Macarez; pianist Adam Laloum, and actor Vincent Dedienne.
Around the world, the sound of the accordion is associated with the squares, streets and cafés of Paris, but it was in France’s central Auvergne region that Félicien Brut first fell in love with the instrument. Born in 1986, he grew up in the mountainous Massif du Sancy, and was soon playing frequently for bals musette – where bands play dance music that became popular in the early 20th century – such as the Java waltz, foxtrot and tango. Félicien formed his own tango trio and soon became keen on the idea of integrating the accordion more closely into the world of classical music. In recent years he has made quite an impact in France, performing regularly with, among others, Thibaut Garcia and Edouard Macarez, and commissioning a whole series of new works from contemporary composers.
Three of these works feature on J’ai deux amours: Fabien Waksman’s L’Île-du-Temps – a concerto inspired by Egyptian artefacts in the Louvre Museum; Olympia, a suite by Karol Beffa which evokes the legendary concert hall on the Boulevard des Capucines, linked with such performers as Edith Piaf, Barbara, Charles Trénet, Charles Aznavour and Yves Montand, and Caprice d’accordéoniste by Thibault Perrine, a depiction of the Place de la Bastille. It was there, a century or so ago, that the musette was born, when folk instrumentalists from the Auvergne met accordion-playing Italian immigrants and a new musical fusion was created.
“The standard numbers of French song and the hits of musette were part of my childhood,” writes Félicien Brut. “I originally chose the accordion so that I could play popular music. It was only in my teens that I discovered a whole other world: the world of symphonies, sonatas and concertos, so-called classical or ‘serious’ music. But there was no way I could choose between the two types of music or give up one in favour of the other. My belief is that music, whether classical or popular, has the power to touch people, to move them, to make them smile, to revive memories… And so I decided to bring together my ‘two loves’ with this album … Rossini rubbing shoulders with Vincent Scotto [composer of ‘J’ai deux amours]’; Chopin slumming it with Serge Gainsbourg [the brilliant, but dissipated songwriter, represented here by a number entitled – most appropriately – ‘Accordéon’, a hit for chanteuse Juliette Gréco]; Igor Stravinsky and Astor Piazzolla playing alongside Hubert Giraud [composer of ‘Sous le ciel de Paris’, Brut’s choice for the Eiffel Tower] and Georges Van Parys [composer of ‘La Complainte de la Butte’, which pays tribute to Montmartre].”
Among the enticing array of transcriptions and arrangements on J’ai deux amours, Adam Laloum joins Félicien Brut in the ‘Danse sacrale’ from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, notorious for causing a riot when premiered at the elegant Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. 12 years later, in 1925, Josephine Baker caused a different kind of sensation at the same theatre with her appearance in a spectacular revue. It was the beginning of her proverbial love affair with the city of Paris.
