Les Métanuits

Description

Emile Parisien and Roberto Negro team up to pay tribute to Ligeti's 1st string quartet. While still a young composer, György Ligeti (1923-2006) wrote his first string quartet, subtitled "Métamorphoses nocturnes," in the 1950s, under the clearly perceptible influence of Béla Bartók. Both sharing a great admiration for Ligeti, pianist Roberto Negro and saxophonist Émile Parisien—who actively contribute to the vitality of improvised music in France—set themselves a curious challenge: to adapt this string quartet for piano and saxophone! The result is "Les Métanuits," whose organic spontaneity is matched only by its oblique fearlessness. True to Ligeti's iconoclastic spirit, the two mischievous musicians transfigure the original score without altering its rich expressive range—quite the opposite.