Wilson chante Montand

Description

Lambert Wilson knows Yves Montand well. Their meeting with this album sounds like an obvious choice. An obvious choice of timbre, already. Yves Montand and Lambert Wilson are two light baritones with similar ranges, with close timbres, but above all, they are two lovers of words. Lambert Wilson had already made a few forays into Yves Montand's repertoire during his early musical shows in the 90s, but his work as a film actor and in musicals had taken precedence... Today, he reunites with Bruno Fontaine, pianist, arranger, and composer who had been his accomplice for two of his musical shows and for the film On connaît la chanson by Alain Resnais. Wilson sings Montand thus contains the great immortal classics like "La Bicyclette," "Les Grands Boulevards," or "Syracuse," but also some rarities like "Les Bijoux," composed by Léo Ferré on a poem by Charles Baudelaire, "Casse-têtes" by Gébé and Philippe-Gérard, or "Sanguine," by Jacques Prévert and Bob Castella. "Three songs were even difficult to sing as they move me: Les Feuilles mortes, Barbara, and Le Temps des cerises, which all speak of a bygone era, of the happiness before the war, of lost love." The arrangements by Bruno Fontaine blend the dynamics of a jazz group, the power of a symphonic orchestra, the grace of the Quatuor Hermès, and the inspiration of great soloists - Paul Meyer on clarinet, Henri Demarquette on cello. Bruno Fontaine evokes melancholies reminiscent of Nino Rota, grating moments between Kurt Weill and Astor Piazzolla, very Sinatra plush carpets, philharmonic expanses, poignant moments of intimacy... A reading that is both respectful and free, literate and enjoyable.