Beffa: Les saisons de la liberté

Using the metaphor of the seasons, Mathieu Laine, in his book Les Saisons de la liberté, analyses the fear of the arrival of a political winter marked by authoritarianism.

The seasons are viewed as part of the dark cycle that society is going through: a glorious summer, born of a liberating spring, followed by an autumn in which freedom is betrayed and everything begins to seize up, and finally a bleak winter. According to the author, if spring always returns, it does so at the cost of blood. Yet greatness and beauty are part of the struggle, offering a way of illuminating this political night.

In response to this text, Karol Beffa composed a work of the same name, extending this meditation on decline, resistance, and hope into music through the same metaphor of the seasons. The piece is performed by the composer himself at the piano, alongside major figures of the French musical scene: Gautier Capuçon on cello, Mathilde Calderini on flute, and Arthur Stockel on clarinet.