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Idyla

First CD by APPASSIONATA
Works by Leoš Janáček,
Guillaume Lekeu, Edvard Grieg and W.A. Mozart

FIDELIO Classic (FACD020)
Distributed by SRI Canada
Order here!

"I cannot give this CD (Idyla) a stronger recommendation. It’s over an hour’s worth of pure bliss."
FANFARE MAGAZINE (USA)

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Claude Gingras: Four stars
La Presse

Founded eight years ago by its current conductor Daniel Myssyk, the Ensemble Instrumental Appassionata is the least well-known of our chamber orchestras. However, it just launched its very first CD, recorded last December. The program is the same one the little orchestra presented at the Centre Pierre-Charbonneau in July, with one exception: the concert included one more piece. This program seemed a bit serious for these summer concerts offered to the public with a light snack. But it stands up much better if you listen to it at home, in a context where you can concentrate on the music.

To me, this program seemed a little serious for these public concerts accompanied by a bite to eat. But it’s better when you listen to it at home in a context that allows you to concentrate. Heard this way, the nuances that the conductor brings to Janacek’s unique Idyla suite lend a lovely intimacy to the seven movements. The title of this rarely recorded suite is also the title of this 62-minute CD. The ensemble is impeccable in every way – coordination, balance, accuracy and musicality – and the beauty of its sound is perfectly reproduced here. As in the concert, Myssyk elicits from his Appassionata the maximum of expression to be found in the serious pages of Guillaume Lekeu’s Adagio and Grieg’s Two Elegiac Melodies. The order of the pieces on the CD is the complete reverse of the concert’s order. Mozart’s Serenata notturna, which began the concert, concludes the CD in brilliant fashion. Myssyk directs with elegance and humour and includes all the repetitions. He slightly varies the second theme and allows the concertmaster and even the double bass and tympani to improvise small, amusing rhythms. Olivier Thouin, now with the MSO, was concertmaster.